The Sweetest Thing

“Your feet” she said. This ambling ancient.
“The way you placed your feet was beautiful, and you were so into reading your book, I had to tell you…it was beautiful”
“You must read a lot” said the old woman, “what are you reading?”

Photo by Ed Rogers

I didn’t know what to expect when she approached me and said ‘excuse me young lady.’ I supposed she wanted to ask where the bus route would take her. So it goes in Hollywood. There are numerous mumblings of strangers to take you in all conversational directions…last week a man approached my Sister and I at the grocery store and said that he wanted to invite us to a premiere. Before I could ask ‘What Premiere?’ he ordered me to take down his number. When he called me later, I essentially said ‘What do you want? Be quick about it. I’m not friendly.’ I’ve lived in L.A. too long to take anything at face value, so I feel absolved here.

She asked, “Is that fiction or based on real-life?”
I said “Well, Margaret Atwood says that like The Handmaid’s Tale she didn’t take anything that hadn’t already happened or wasn’t supposed…”
“I see that you’re married…you should tell your husband to take a picture like that. A picture of you beautiful like that. You’re only beautiful once….well, you’ll be beautiful as you age of course…but you should tell him.”
“Thank you”
“Well, I’m going to catch the Dash”
“Yeah, I have to go, this is my bus” I said.
Then she looked at me, “I will see you in heaven”
I laugh delighted. Rarely is such a goodbye uttered in Hollywood. It made me smile. I wanted to hug her for the sheer surprise of what she said.

‘God, are you up there?’ I hope so.