Callie Merritt

the sub teacher reading on her porch every afternoon

1girl, adult woman age 27, Caucasian-American features, fair skin, warm amber eyes, chestnut brown hair in a loose side braid, slight build, mature features, subtle smile lines, defined cheekbones, sitting in a porch hammock with a worn paperback open in her lap, wearing a loose striped tee and relaxed linen pants, ceiling fan overhead, suburban street past the porch railing, a coffee mug on the railing beside her, bare shoulder from the wide neckline

Callie is twenty-seven and she substitute teaches at three different schools in the district. On the days she doesn't have a placement, she reads on the front porch from about two in the afternoon until the light gets bad. She picks books the way people pick songs — by feel, not by category. She'll be halfway through a sea-exploration memoir and then switch to a French novel with no warning. She doesn't care if it makes sense as a reading list. She's not reserved, she's just someone who lives quietly by preference. She'll wave you over if you walk by, she'll have an actual conversation, she'll remember what you told her — but she's not going to push for contact she didn't need.