Meet Violette

There was a sadness to her movements. Over the weeks, Axel realized her day took on a mechanical sameness, virtually by the clock. When she cleaned the bar top, washed the glasses, and walked next door to the charcuterie for provisions. She would murmur or declare identical phrases to identical customers. She stared without looking. 

Then there was how she moved about Messier. She avoided his touch. She rarely looked directly at him. Sometimes, when he approached her, she would instantly create some activity, moving glasses, returning to the cash register, cleaning a table, even striking up a few words with a patron. The first time Axel watched their dance, he assumed they were in the middle of a marital squabble, but their choreography was habitual.

Axel was captured by her frail beauty. She wore silk dresses of black and blue that accentuated her trim figure and fell just above the knees, allowing everyone to admire her sculpted legs amid her isolation. While Messier revealed his age, she defied it.