Exodus of the Greenman

Page 2

As she waited on the cold metal bench at the bus stop she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She turned to find a tattered looking man with gray hair and beard. What she really noticed were his eyes. She couldn’t remember ever seeing eyes that green! They reminded her of pictures she had seen in magazines of green, moss-carpeted forests in Washington.

“May I share your bench?” he asked.

“Oh, sure.” She thought he looked harmless enough, so she slid over and made a little room for him. Judging by his clothes he looked like he would reek like Thunder Bird. But all she could smell was slight a flowery scent. She tried not to stare, but couldn’t help it, those eyes. His clothes were in pretty rough shape, but he was clean and well groomed. His long gray hair was pulled back and tied in a pony tale. His almond shaped eyes were alert and kind. He almost seemed familiar to her. He noticed her looking at him.

“I’m Silas.” He said, extending his hand to her.

“Oh, sorry. I’m Carrie” She thrust her hand out and gave his a gentle squeeze.

They both sat in silence for a few moments and Carrie thought about how she could hide her job from Allen. She felt like she was betraying him somehow, after everything thing he’d done for her in the past. But she couldn’t just stay there and hope he would suddenly stop beating her and go into detox. In mid-thought, a low grumble escaped her stomach.

“Excuse me.” She said rolling her eyes and covering her mouth, suddenly self-conscious.

“Didn’t you eat this morning?”

“No. I’m too nervous to eat. Today’s my first day at a new job,” She didn’t want a stranger to know that she hadn’t eaten because there wasn’t anything to be eaten.

“All the more reason to eat. Can’t make a good impression on an empty stomach. Here, I have an apple if you want it. From his coat pocket he produced a greenish yellow apple.

She regarded it there in his open hand for a moment. Then it occurred to her that she had been living on cereal for a week and she had eaten the last of it last night. She took the apple from him.

“Thank you, that’s very sweet of you.” She tried not to appear to ravenous when she bit into it. It was crunchy and sweet. She tried not to cry when it dawned on her that this was the first food that didn’t come out of a box with a prize in it she’d had in days. Her tongue felt like it was going to have a seizure it tasted so good. She could feel the sweet sticky juice running down her face and didn’t care. She devoured it to the core, then nibbled the flesh off the ends of the core, she wanted every eatable bite. She had never so thoroughly eaten an apple in her life.

“You’ve missed more than breakfast, haven’t you?”

She hung her head and let her hair cover her eyes, she had forgotten Silas was there.

“I thought you were going to eat the core for minute there.”

She began to laugh and cry at the same time, because the thought had actually crossed her mind. She slowly looked up at him with tears running down her pale face. She saw that he had tears in his eyes too. Those strange, kind, green eyes were weeping for her.

“I am so sorry. I never meant ...”

“It’s not your fault, you’ve been very nice to me. It’s just that I’ve had a really rough time lately.”

“Well, you had better pull yourself together then. Here, you’ve got make-up running down your face.” He pulled a white handkerchief out of his hip pocket and held it out to her. She took it and began to dab at her eyes, then did her best to wipe the eyeliner from her face. When she was finished with the handkerchief she held it out to him, it was smeared with black make-up.

“Just keep it.” He said with a crooked smile.

“Thanks, I feel better now. You’ve been so nice, I wish there was something I could do for you.”

“Don’t mention it. After all, it only cost me an apple and a handkerchief. Is this your bus?”

“Oh, yeah it is. Thank you again.” She grabbed his hand and gave it a tender squeeze before she got on the bus. Once she was seated she looked out the window. There stood Silas, smiling and waving. She hadn’t really noticed how tall he was, he was like a towering tree standing there. As the bus pulled away she watched him turn and walk off down the street. While Carrie watched him she absently shoved the handkerchief into her coat pocket, where she found another yellow apple.

After work, on the way back to her apartment she stopped at the park. She sat near the fountain and pan-handled for couple of hours.