gnomi | An Odd Early-Morning Conversation

Time: 7:00 AM, 16 November 2005
Place: Bus stop at corner of Harvard and Coolidge Streets, Brookline, in front of the Citizens Bank
Dramatis Personae:
RW: Random Woman
ME: Uh...me

{ME is waiting at bus stop for 6:55 bus that is already late, facing toward Coolidge Corner, from where the bus should be coming but still isn't. ME is wearing black skirt, green shirt, multicolored sweater, unzipped jacket, and black wool beret}

RW: That's a nice hat.

ME: Oh! {turns to face RW} Thank you. {turns back to face Coolidge Corner}

RW: You're a professional artist, right?

ME: {turns back toward RW} Uh...no.

RW: But only professional artists wear that sort of hat.

ME (confusedly): Not in this neighborhood. A lot of Orthodox Jewish women wear them, since they cover their hair full time.

RW: But I can see {RW gestures to the corners of her face, indicating the wispy bits emerging from under ME's hat)

ME: Well, yes. But the majority of my hair is covered.

RW: So you're like those Muslim women who cover themselves.

ME: Well, the idea's the same, yes, but there are some differences.

RW: It's all the same. You're all the same.

ME: Well, that's like saying that Roman Catholicism and Presbyterianism are the same.

RW: Yeah, they are.

ME: Uh...OK.

{RW goes into bank. ME continues to look for bus, slightly more anxiously now}

{A couple minutes pass. Still no bus. RW reemerges from bank}

RW: It's all about love.

ME: Huh?

RW: Fundamentally, all of that stuff's about love. They're all about love.

ME {finally spotting bus at traffic light right before my stop}: Uh...OK.

RW: Really, it's all about love. They're all the same that way.

ME {as bus pulls up to stop and opens door}: Uh...that's my bus.

{ME gets on bus. RW crosses street through oncoming traffic}

ME {thinking to self}: Uh...OK.