When I pulled into the apartment driveway, there was something new. A cute blonde woman-- wearing lasses and probably in her late twenties- sat in the trunk space of her Subaru. She was working on a computer, using the hatchback as an umbrella. I had seen her briefly in the apartment once before. I asked her if she was related to my old dude and she said, "No, just a roommate. Apparently, there are a couple of small apartments on the top floor." Then she complimented me on my good deed and we talked for a good thirty minutes. She once was an elementary teacher in Arkansas and now she's on a research grant at Rutgers. She was in the midst of collecting data from schools in Brooklyn when the virus hit. Now she's busy finishing up her research and applying for new grants. We talked a lot about how school might look in the future, the way this pandemic will pull back the curtain on income inequality and its effect on education, prom, graduation, my wife trying to teach math to elementary students remotely . . . all sorts of topics.
I think she found me charming and funny, though I was dressed like a homeless person and I haven't shaved in a while. And we were far enough apart that she couldn't smell my morning coffee breath, which wasn't particularly pleasant (I know this because I was wearing a mask in the Stop&Shop, which amplifies and exacerbates coffee breath). This is the kind of credit you should get when you do community service-- I think this would make a great commercial for the program, a guy drops off he groceries for an old dude and then gets to chat with a cute, intelligent chick.
I'm sure she will tell her cute graduate school friends about me, and they will all be there next Friday to laud my good deeds.
4 comments:
i knew when i saw the headline that this pale echo of a porno plot would be the payoff. kudos to you, dave!
those plots are usually quite predictable . . .
Somewhere in central NJ, a young woman is composing a corresponding blog post about a middle-aged homeless man with bad breath who does community service in an attempt to talk to young women.
rashamon blogging. just need the old dude (although he doesn't do email) and the landlady. i might be the most unreliable perspective of the bunch . . .
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