From the Imagination of Dr. Nicki: Real Life - Shadows Collide

She looks like an unpacked grocery sack - stiff and just about to tip over. Some women soften with age, but she’s not one of them. Instead, she’s leather tanned and all angles. Right away, you can see she’s been drinking.

“You’d drink too,” she spit, “if you’d led my life!”

Getting close you can spot it in her eyes. The life. Images there like film clips: Brutal battles with lost lovers, unremembered friends, neglected hopes, dead babies and discarded promises. She’d been out on a limb, down in the gutter, thrown across the bed, played chicken with the bus, been dragged through the mud and left for dead. There had been a million turning points and all the turns had led back to this moment.

“Well, how d’ya think it would be, anyway!” she snarls. “Life’s a load of crap and then we die. Ha!”

I can’t understand it. Can’t quite grasp the tar thick darkness of her. Oh, I’ve had my sad times, certainly. I mean, we all have, haven’t we. But I’ve always picked myself up, shaken off the night terrors and gone on. So, being locked up with this way now, just seems…impossible.

I wonder when someone will return. It doesn’t seem right, their having left us alone like this. After all, I’m a well-established member of society and she’s…well, just look at her. Besides which, I’ve already told them that the whole business was an accident. I mean, she practically darted that cart out right in front of my car. And, after all, I only barely bumped it…hardly even really touched her, although with all her screaming and such you’d never know it. I think my beautiful, shiny car got the worst of it really. Jeez I love that car!  At the dealers they called it Burgundy Dust but it looks more like crimson to me.

“Got a butt?” the leather woman hisses, yanking me out of my reverie.

I can feel the disgust arranging my expression. “I don’t smoke,” I reply with a slightly superior tone. Best to keep my distance. Who knows what she’s capable of?

Finally, the door opens. The policeman looks just as you would expect. Everything on his face droops. He’s been haggard so long, by now he simply appears bored all the time. “You two ladies will need to write out your statements.”

Miffed to be put in the same category as this creature, I dutifully take the offered lined yellow pad and pen. Leather woman just stares him, arms imperiously crossed over her chest. The odd position momentarily gives her the air of proud authority. “I want a cigarette.”

The policeman sighs and runs his thick palm over his nearly hairless head. “Do ya’ wanna file this complaint or not?” he says thinly.

“Fine,” the woman replies, abruptly snatching pad and pen. “Like you jerk-offs are gonna do anything to Miss Priss here anyway!!”

Well, she’s doing herself no good, I think, pushing my chin slightly up and out. Oh, these people. How do they manage anyway? After all, there are rules and such. And in polite society one just simply doesn’t behave this way.

I began to write carefully. Penmanship is always important. After all, the authorities will need to clearly understand my position. I sneak a sideward peek at leather woman. She’s scrawling furiously, her words flinging themselves carelessly below the proper lines. Falling off the ends like spilled pepper. The authorities will never take her seriously!

The haggard policeman returns to gather our papers. “So, are ya’ gonna arrest the bitch or what!” My, how indelicate she is, I tsk silently.

I can’t believe this woman. I mean, I’m sure she’s had a very difficult life, and all, but rules are rules. One simply doesn’t behave this way. Well, it will be over soon, I’m certain. And then I can get back to…what was I on about anyway? Oh yes – shopping for that darn party. Must find the exact right outfit. Need to hide those holiday pounds, after all. Everyone will be there.

“Come with me miss,” the policeman said to leather woman. She plumps her shoulders in grand gesture of triumph. I grimace. “Paleeeze,” I think scornfully. “Oh, well, think what you will. After all, I’ll soon be on my way.”

The moments drip by. I check my nails. Damn…a chip! I start singing a recently heard song in my head…fly me to the moon and let me dance among the stars…

The door opens. Thank God – time to go.

The policeman looks sheepish. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to detain you.”

“What do you mean?” I can’t grasp the words.

“You’ll need to stay here until you can make bail. I suggest you call an attorney.”

This is beyond belief. “That’s impossible. I’ve done nothing wrong. It was SHE that darted out in front of me!  I’m the victim here.”  

“I’m sure it will all be sorted out in the end, but for now, we need to keep you.”

 Well, certainly this is the end. The worst possible thing has happened. False accusation leading to undeserved punishment. What will my friends and family think? How ever will I survive the humiliation? And to think of being at the mercy of that…that menace to society….that filthy, wrinkled hag!!

Rest assured this was not the end of it. Of course, I escaped that awful place never charged with anything. There’s no record, so it’s almost as if it never happened. Almost. Because it DID happen.

Every once in a while I think I see her face. Lingering on a littered street corner or even sneaking into my room at night, her heavy breath licking my ear. Once I even awakened thinking she was looming over me. I could feel her slobber drip down upon my breast;  see her sneer gleaming against the moon.  Another time she came to me in a dream, laughing, like a wild-eyed hyena thrilled with her kill.

I suppose the thing to notice is how everything that happens in our lives stick to our ribs like thick grits. I suppose the thing to notice is that pretending to be unaffected never makes it so. Real life, it appears, is a sneak thief, going where it wants.