She's eating a bagel

She's sitting about thirty feet away from me, eating a bagel. And I don't know what's on the bagel, and I don't know what she's drinking in her plain mug, and I don't know whether the boy she's sitting with is her lover or her friend or her co-worker or her brother or her partner in crime. And I don't know if she keeps looking at me because she's intrigued in me or wants to fuck me or is worried because she keeps catching me looking at her or she's bored or is actually looking at something on the wall directly behind me. And I don't know if we were introduced at a party if she'd listen in rapt attention to my life story or exchange pleasantries and be on her way or innocently flirt with me and then get to know me a little and get scared and excuse herself for another drink or push herself on me like I ain't leaving tonight without getting her phone number. And if we dated I don't know if she'd be a skater or a student or an office worker or an artist or a slacker or a psycho or a sorority girl (well okay probably not a sorority girl) but if she'd be selfish or giving or sex-crazed or prudish or boring or happy or passionate. And if we got married and had a child I don't know if she'd be caring or controlling or overprotective or underprotective or suburban or urban or rural or give up smoking or take up martinis at three in the afternoon or a leader or a follower or a den mother or a little league coach or celebrate anniversaries or file for divorce. And if we lived a long and full life and one day I finally got that cancer my mom insists I'm going to get I don't know if she'd curse me or cry for me or enter a period of self-imposed exile from humanity or try to get on with her life or marry again or raise our children to always carry a little piece of their daddy in their heart always or blow her inheritance on a trip to Bermuda and drink Mai Tais on the beach and flirt with twenty-one year old cabana boys.

However, she is eating a bagel. That much I know for sure.

Copyright 1997, Jason Pettus. All rights reserved.