[Real Life] Candy Land

A woman was contorting her body on a bench in front of the 16th and Mission BART Station. Her arms were spastic, jolting out as if they were trying to flee her body. Probably in her forties she was a user, a boozer and a looser. She probably stole a TV and did some time. I watched her talk with a black woman. Her face seemed half paralyzed. "Yeah, my seventeen year old is out on the streets too." It wasn't surprising. Up the street I headed to grab a slice of pizza for lunch. One of the clients from "Creativity Explored" was in the door of the pizza joint lighting up a cigarette. An overwhelming feeling of deja vu overcame me-- not surprisingly I had entered Deja Vu pizza restaurant. The site of someone lighting up indoors was bizarre. I've been in California too long. After getting my slice I walked back to work. The woman on the bench was gone. I rounded the corner of Capp Street to see her-- shirt half up, doing the addict dance, this time in front of men. She placed on arm behind her head and bobbed up and down-- trying to be sexy but obviously she had lost control of her extremities. And the men cooed and gave her attention. All I could do was laugh-- and laugh I did.