Just so it's known, I wrote this a few years ago, I hope that doesn't disqualify it.


Shifty Eyes

He was the type of kid with shifty eyes. His eyes were always shifting about the room. From the floor, to his hand, to his wristwatch, to something on the back of a chair, other people’s faces. His eyes lingered when looking at other peoples faces. As if he were analyzing them. Sometimes he would look down quickly, back to the floor, or the wristwatch, or that fascinating piece of gum on the chair back, this sudden ocular movement indicated that someone looked back. A blush on his cheeks indicated that that someone was attractive.

His eyes would always look on those faces again though, over and over, regardless of repeated eye contact. Sometimes it seemed he was like a computer scanner, slowly moving his fluorescent eyes up and down, memorizing every detail so he could call it up with his eyes closed. He had to do this scanning over and over again, as human faces tend to change from different angles, different expressions.

Computer scanners make that one simple ocular analysis of a paper, they are unable to understand the words, however, understand the meaning, or understand the personality of whatever it is they are scanning. His eyes must have been like that, memorizing every curve and color like a scanner, since this was probably the closest he would ever get to knowing those he analyzed so intently.