Listening In

In Borders.

That Stevie Nicks song from School of Rock is playing.

I am finishing To Own A Dragon.

I am sitting in the café after stopping to read a discussion between Rick Warren and Sam Harris on the existence of God and the truth of the Gospel in Newsweek.

There is a lady speaking loudly to a man named Dan. The woman has some sort of mental disability. I can’t catch her name. Let’s call her Mary.

I would find it hard to focus if I were sitting any closer. There is a couple sitting fifteen feet closer to me than Mary and Dan, and yet Mary’s voice dominates the café.

“She wouldn’t shut up and leave me alone.” I hear.

I hear more. The lady seems to be doing a lot of complaining.

“She was mean to me. Mean all the time.”

“I am not going to deal with some people’s behavior when they are like that.”

“It makes me look stupid, but I am not. I am smart.”

“I never stole anything. She is wrong about that.”

She talks about two other women like they are her friends.

“Stealing is wrong, absolutely wrong. Bad news is what it is.”

One of Mary’s friends wanted her to stay over.

“I wouldn’t do that. That is bad news.”

There are two people sitting much closer to Mary and Dan than I am. They aren’t talking, reading, or writing. I think they are just listening. I think they should at least disguise it. I don’t know if what I am doing is okay or right.

“My dad was in WWII before he got killed.”

I wish I had a laptop. I could capture so much more of the dialogue.

“I only got one brother because dad got killed.”

“Now I got one brother. He is a carpenter.”

“I like deviled eggs and I like boiled eggs with toast.”

This man with her, Dan, is not her brother. I can’t figure out his relation to her. He is probably just a friend. He seems to be making an effort to get her to think about less serious things, hence the conversation about eggs and now about old vacations.

She hasn’t touched her black iced tea.

An elderly woman sits across from me. She has grabbed four books off the shelf: The National Geographic Guide to Birds, Complete Guide to Cat Care, Think Like a Cat, and The Cat Book.

Mary walks past me calling louder to a woman named Janice.

Now it becomes evident to me that Dan has some sort of mental impairment. He speaks very quietly and helps Mary with her things, but his movements are rigid and elementary. He wears Velcro shoes. He has rolled his jeans. He wears a light khaki jacket zipped all the way up. His hair has thinned out with his age. He might be in his 40s.

The two say they want to go to Michael’s.

“I want to have my surgery. It is the 28th. Then my sister is going to stay with me.”

I glance at the nearest bookshelf. Menopause for Dummies stares back at me.