February 19, 2008

• A post call interlude

  Running errands today on the el there was a somewhat motley white couple sitting nearby me. They werent really desperate looking or dirty, just sort of sad and stringy and threadbare. They were on their way to see “john” and although the woman repeatedly tried to reach him on her cell, john was not answering. There was a lot of discussion of what the fuck they were going to do now. The woman suggested calling “the mexicans” and here is where my ears perked up and my eavesdropping became less perfunctory. because if “john” is your first choice, but “the mexicans” will do in a pinch, that could be a clue that this is not exactly a social call

  the guy ridiculed the notion of calling the mexicans, saying they would not bother with them for just twenty five dollars. in fact the figure of twenty five dollars was mentioned frequently, as in “we only have twenty five dollars” upon which the guy would suggest bagging the whole john/mexicans trip and buying a six pack or whatever. I was quite curious because what in the world could they have been planning to buy? a bullshit amount of weed? I did not get a crackhead vibe from these two, but i guess it is possible that they could be on their way to buy a single hit, although it is pretty damn sad to have to take the el to your dealer. they certainly did not have the “grand adventure”  attitude of people about to do hallucinogens. so what was it? i was dangerously close to turning around and asking

  and yes for the record, i totally eavesdrop on peoples conversations. That is at least half the fun of taking public transportation. I also like looking into open windows to see how people have decorated their apartments and wandering into buildings acting like i belong to see what goes on in there. One day, this will get me in quite a lot of trouble.

  • 3:13 pm
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