The lady in white

Winter in michigan


I saw a woman at the transit centre withered and battered by her life. She had moist eyes which sparkled back at me as my eyes met her and she passed a friendly smile at me. “Winters are coming, they coming really fast this time!”she said. I asked her as to what she had in the bag she was carrying. “Oh! I have these cans which I need to recycle at Meijers. I need to get back home and make dinner for the kids. They will be back from school and there was no stock in the refrigerator you know!” “Oh meijers has recycling units? I was not aware of it”, I said. “Yea, they have a couple of them and you get paid for the number of cans you put in”. “Oh ! great! must be a nice way to earn some extra bucks you spend on the drinks”. “Yea, John drinks a lot and beer seems to be water for him. He guzzles down a lot and so today I thought of clearing my home of all these trash!”. I passed a smile and said, “Good for you”. She laughed. While we were lost in our seemingly endless talks about cans and recycling there was someone looking for her at the transit centre. He was not actually looking for her, he had actually lost his way it seemed. She asked me to take care of her bag and she walked a few paces away from me towards that man. The man was tall and well built and was in an inebriated state. I heard them speaking. “John, how did it go? Get lost!”. “Why are you yelling at me? There are people around us”. “I don’t give a damn about people anymore I will speak the way I want to, you got me”. “Hell yeah! Don’t make a fool of yourself get back home and tend to the children. I saw her face change from a range of emotions. She turned sober and then impulsive. She was a dynamic face. “I am going to get food for dinner and will be back in a while”. She turned to come back and get her bag. But she stopped and retraced her steps back “..bu..but.. what about the job? Have you been laid off! Has the plant shutdown permanently?” He did not answer. Meanwhile the bus arrived and I yelled, “Hey! I think we need to get into the bus”. I ran forward and gave her the bag and she traced her steps to the bus in a very unenthusiastic way. Her enthusiasm was low as compared to the spring in her steps which could be seen when she had arrived at the transit centre. We sat beside each other in the bus. The man in the row beside us glanced at her and smiled. She smiled back. She shifted her big bag of cans probably in order to turn her face towards the man so that she could be ready to answer his expected greetings comfortably. The smile lingered on her face. I thought she had known him from before or may be they were neighbours. “How are you doing?” , he coughed up. “Not that fine, weather’s also pretty gloomy”. “How about you?”. “Nothing much, just going to the social security office for some work.” “Aha! Problems it seems”. “ We rattled as the bus moved across a rough patch on the road. The driver was a young boy and seemed to be a new at his workplace. The woman tried to avoid his glances but his eyes would never seem to go away from her face. “ So you are going to recycle these cans” “ Yea had thought of getting some food for the children”. “I stay quite close to the transit centre”, he said deliberately. “oh! Nice”. She said and moved away from him. The more she moved away the more he wanted to speak to her. He dialled someone from his phone but was unable to get through. “Oh these connections!”. They are all screwed like the Big 3 here in Detroit. All screwed!” She had a disinterested smile. “yea! These connections are not good at all.” But I think sprint gives a pretty decent connection. I don’t have to pay much and I got this handset, see”, said she by moving her hand with her phone to make him have a look at it. “Aha! Hmm I also had the same handset but it got screwed when it got into the washing machine.” “Must have been really bad for you”! “Hmm, let me write down my number for you”. The man had a bright sparkle in his eyes. “oh! That will be nice”. She had a smirk across her face as she pressed the keys on the phone. I can give myself a ring from your phone then you can have my number too.” She gave him the phone and I had to make way for her hand again. Something made me sick that day. I was sitting in the seats which are lower than the windows and due to the vapour on the windows I was not being able to look outside and I was nauseated. I desperately wanted to get out of this confusion. The bus finally arrived at meijers and she got off with a big grin across her face. “ See you sometime soon.”

Comments

gautom said…
nice reading...