An Unknown Face

She had an authoritative forehead and a square jaw. When she tied her hair back, the right side of her hairline seemed to be pulled backwards by some invisible force. Small tufts of hair that rebelled against the band would fall on her forehead making it look curiously barren. When she left her hair free, entire heaps of it fell on her forehead comfortably hiding the small bald spot. She had inherited it from her grandmother in addition to an unattractive nose. It was small and flat. It made her face look younger, softer and more feminine than she would care to admit. The first time she had seen her profile, she was appalled that her nose barely made an upward appearance. It seemed to slump lazily. She had pulled it upwards a couple of times, hoping it would look a little more prominent. Her eyebrows started slowly and curved upward in one neat upward sweep and fell gracefully by the side of her eyes, with a curious nonchalance. The creator seems to have taken his time, drawing the tufts of hair with geometrical precision that they gave one the impression that her eyes were more expressive than they actually were. At first sight, you would say, 'You have beautiful eyes' in a puzzled tone. The small flaw in the compliment would nag but you would never figure it out. Her eyes were curious, if not mesmerising. Their shape was a little unusual. They curved slightly upward, two normal-sized almonds. Her eye-balls were dark brown. She had a slight squint. Most of the times, the expression they wore was serious, sometimes, they were carefree and open and rarely vacant. She had dark circles outlining the eyes. (If you asked her about it, she would explain that they were inherited genetically and not acquired.) Hence you would think her eyes were bigger than they actually were. Her face was full of such illusions. She had a full mouth and big lips. When she smiled they extended from ear to ear, almost. Her teeth were uneven with one big gap on the right side. (Inherited, not broken.) You would notice if you were standing to her right when she grinned. She was outraged that she had not inherited the one good feature - flawless teeth - from her grandmother. Here and there, her face was peppered with fading acne marks.