Filed under: Daily Specials | Tags: bums, laundromat, life, men, observations, prostitution, random
Last night’s drink: Vampire Merlot
I’ve been aching to write about an experience I had at the laundromat last week.
At 7 p.m., it was already dark out, but the inside of the place was brighter than day; florescent lights, white washers, beige floor and dryers made of glass and steel. The hardware gleamed brighter than my whites. The space beyond the windows looked like the backside of theater curtains.
I was one of three people in the place, all stationed at different folding tables, silently piling their faded clothes and bedding. I was wrestling, as I always do, with a fitted sheet, when a gruff man and a stick-thin woman in men’s clothing walked in. They moved in awkward stutters and half-weaves, but were having an active and animated conversation over the rustling of a plastic bag of Chinese take-out.
I dismissed it as bum drivel until I noticed that the man seemed relatively well-kempt. He began to unpack the food before them, using the small magazine table as a dining area. The man was pleased with himself, and kept commenting on the generous portion sizes before them. The woman seemed conflicted, and kept fidgeting in her chair. A shotglass laced onto a cord around her neck waved back and forth on her flat chest.
Man: I want you to eat something.
Woman: I’m not really that hungry.
M: I want to make sure that..
W: You know I pray every day? I pray for theweriwn… iweonodg.. eijgo…
M: Eat! Look at all this good food.
W: Let’s just go back and look at it and do this.
M: I want to make sure you aren’t using the money to shoot up or something. I want you to feed yourself.
W: Let’s just go do it. F*** all these people. I pray every day. F*** them.
The conversation went on like this; the woman cursing the rest of us, who were now folding as quickly as we could. At the time, I was pissed about something totally unrelated, so I missed that this crude scene was actually sort of a touching one. These two were about to engage in prostitution, but this man wanted more than just sex. He wanted to feel like a man, too.
