Along with acting and photography, I like to write. Please enjoy a little story I wrote. If you'd like to print this story anywhere else, please ask my permission first.
Lady with the Brown Paper Bag
©2009 Julia Carpenter
The lady went with her brown paper back to the park that was on the lawn just outside the downtown library. She sat on a park bench all alone. On the bench next to her sat a homeless man. He had dreaded hair and a 2 wheeled shopping cart filled with his life’s possessions. He had a big smile on his face as he was looking all around him. The lady, who was just 47 years old yesterday, thought he looked like the happiest man in the world. On the bench on the other side of her sat a woman who had a radio that was shaped like a cup. She was trying to tune in a radio station. It was rather loud and staticy, but the lady with the paper bag was not bothered. She took out of the paper bag her avocado and cheese sandwich and began to eat. It was her favorite sandwich and she brought it for lunch almost every day unless she could not find fresh avocados at the farmer’s market on Sunday. The lady with the paper bag was a researcher. She worked downtown for the city researching facts about the history of the city for people who made requests on line or by telephone. Mostly it was developers who called trying to get interesting facts about the buildings they were renovating from banks or department stores into lofts. Sometimes filmmakers called, too, but mostly developers. The lady with the brown paper bag thought her job was fine. She grew up in this city and knew a lot of facts about it. It was a solitary job, but that seemed to make sense in her life. She lived in a one bedroom apartment just a few stops up on the red line subway in Los Feliz. She lived alone, except for her plants. Her plants were impeccably cared for – they always had shiny leaves and just the right amount of water. Once a month she gave them natural plant food to keep them nourished. The lady with the brown paper bag finished her sandwich and pulled an apple out of the bag, then put the wax paper from her sandwich back inside the brown paper bag. She wasn’t thinking about anything in particular. She did notice that there seemed to be a lot of pigeons in the park today. She didn’t mind pigeons particularly unless they pooped on her, which had happened once before. Now she always looked up when she waited at a cross walk to make sure there weren’t any perched on the signal. The lady with the brown paper bag was about three quarters of the way done with her apple when she noticed what she at first thought was a rat in the grass next to her feet. Then she looked again. It was a little ball of fuzz, much too fuzzy and small to be a rat. She could see it’s little body move up and down as it breathed. Then she had a flash back from her youth and memories of a pet store on Vermont Avenue…. It was a gerbil lying there in the grass and it didn’t look so good. It’s little eyes were half closed – it didn’t even open them much when she nudged it with the tip of her pump. She set the rest of her apple down next to the gerbil and it slowly started eating. The lady with the brown paper bag decided to take the rest of the day off – something she’d never done before. She picked up the gerbil and the apple, placed them both in her brown paper bag and headed towards Spring Street and the entrance to the Red Line subway station. It was about time she had a friend.
