It was always so easy.It was always so easy. "I'm from Delaware, but I'm studying Social Work at Columbia. You looked lost, and those guys..." I shuddered, for effect. We were at the coffee shop at street level by then; it was mid-afternoon, still too early for the commuter crush, and I bought the girl a burger, some fries, and a coke. She told me her name was Karen then, and that she'd left Chicago to find work; she wanted to be a writer, and New York was where you did that kind of thing. I guess because she thought I was a social worker she felt like telling me about herself. She said she was 19 (yeah, uh huh. And *I'm* 19 too..) and was tired of the midwest "phoniness". Doris, the waitress at this overpriced greasepit gave me the evil eye and dropped the plate with my tuna sandwich from about 2 inches above the table so it landed with a crash. |