On a bench in New York I met a black woman. Her face was decorated with sequins. She wore a beautiful movie star’s hat and nice clothes. She spoke to someone very specific who wasn’t there by her side.
I asked her who she was talking to. She said she was talking to the people across, behind the rails, only they cannot hear her (“But in the movies they will all be able to hear”).
She opened her bag and took out old, folded, yellowing newspaper clips. She smoothed them and showed me pictures of jewels and diamonds that she was going to buy at Macy’s, and with an apologetic expression added: “but in the meantime, I’m here.”
Talia Keinan