A character

   She sat down on the edge of the bed, naked, and just stayed there for several minutes. She then glances at the man that was sleeping in the bed and she realized she found him repulsive. There was no real reason but she felt very uncomfortable around him and decided to dress up and leave. The woman picked up her things from the floor and put them on fast and in silence. Anyway, she could have been loud and the man wouldn’t have woken up. He was snoring and drooled, making her think what was she thinking. Once the woman had everything, she grabbed her purse, which she had left on a chair, and walked out the room. She didn’t really take a look at the guy’s apartment, she knew it would be filthy and tasteless, a mirror of his own personality.

 Once she arrived on the street, she felt more free. Her name was Marina, or at least that was the name she used to sign her paintings. She was a proper artist, painting and sculpting professionally for some years now and been very recognized by it. The man she had just been with probably had no idea what the artistic world was like or how famous she was to other people. But he hadn’t been with him to be recognized, so she couldn’t really blame him for that. She had found him in a bar and had decided she needed to have sex and just went for it with him. He seemed like the kind of guy that would pick up any girl after been offered a drink, so it wasn’t difficult to convince him. She was now regretting her choice as the guy lived very far and now she had to take a bus home. Calling someone to pick her up wasn’t really an option.

 Marina could have done that though. She had always been very good with men, who loved to be submitted to her wishes. It was like they adored to be used by her and all to have sex. It was funny and sad at the same time but she had stopped caring. She just did whatever she wanted whenever she wanted and had no desire to over analyze her behavior. So that’s why it bothered her the fact that she was overthinking everything that had happened with this guy from a bar. Yeah, he wasn’t the brightest light in the sky, but she had seen more stupid and annoying idiots in the world. So why was it that he was so particularly annoying to him? Was it something he said or did? Possibly but her memory wasn’t very good right now.

 The bus she needed arrived and it was almost empty. An elderly woman decided to sit on Marina’s side, even though there were many seats to choose from. As she sat down, she said she preferred to be seated next to someone, in case anything happened. That affirmation made Marina smile and forget about her deal with men. The woman next to her was very old and her back had become curved due to her age but she still had a very sweet face and Marina bet she had a lot to say about her past. She asked the woman were she was going and she mentioned the name of a neighborhood that wasn’t very far. Apparently she was aware of this because she added that, at her age, she couldn’t really walk anywhere.

 As the bus made some more stops, it was filling up rather fast. The old lady was worried about this, at least judging by her looks. Her sight when from a girl with a really daring mini skirt, to a guy dressed in big clothes, to another elderly woman to a man taking off his tie. It was then that she used her elbow to catch Marina’s attention: she then said that the man taking off his tie was gay. Marina couldn’t help but laugh and many people turned to look at her, visibly annoyed. Maybe it was because they were going to work and had busy lives and were decidedly disturbed when someone wasn’t as busy and bored with life as they were. The artist decided to stop laughing but the old lady insisted, making remarks about how the man had taken off his tie.

 Then, she said the girl in the mini skirt was a slut and that the young man in big clothes smelled of marihuana. Marina laughed again, this time covering her face and trying hard not to be loud but it was very hard to resist a good big laugh. She decided to let the old lady talk and instead take a look through the window. The day had lost hat blue hue from early morning and it was now full orange. She realized she had been traveling for twenty minutes but her stop was still far away. The one that was real close was the old lady’s stop so she told her to get ready to announce her stop. The old lady then made an effort to look out the window but it was obvious she had no idea where she was so Marina decided it was best to join her home. After all, her life wasn’t really urgent.

 They descended in the following stop and just then the old woman thanked her and started walking fast, as if she was running away from something. But her fastest sprint wasn’t really that fast and Marina caught up with her, asking where she was going, in order to take her herself. The old woman took a long look at her options and then told Marina to follow her. Now it was different because the old woman wouldn’t say a word. Marina realized she was probably trying to use all of her memory to remember where she was going and the right path towards it. The artist thought she was probably heading to a son’s or daughter’s home or maybe to a friend’s house. Then, having walked only three blocks, they stopped in front of a supermarket.

 Marina started laughing again, as she saw the old woman knocking on several melons and then touching the pineapples and smelling them. She had to stopped her when she attempted to cut open a watermelon with a pair of keys that appeared out of nowhere. It was all very surreal to her and it was funny because she was the artist and now she had found an innate performer in the body of elderly woman. She finally decided to get some cherries and paid for them with a lot of coins she had in her purse. The cashier woman didn’t look very happy but she didn’t say a word, instead counting every single coin.

 Back on the street, they continued to walk in silence, although the lady had opened the box, emptied in the plastic bag they had gave her and threw away the box in the middle of the street. Marina took it and put it in a garbage bin just as the lady offered her a cherry, moving the bag. The artist smiled and took two cherries and had only eaten one when they stopped moving, once again, in front of a gray metal door with a big sign on top. It said “Saint Joseph Resting Home”. The old lady pushed the door and Marina was amazed to see it was open. The old lady entered fast and Marina followed, looking around with curiosity. After all, she was visiting someone. They walked along a long corridor and finally arrived to a large room where many people where watching the television. Others, most, where fast asleep and snoring.

 Marina couldn’t avoid remembering the man she had left behind almost an hour ago. But comparing these nice people with that guy was unfair. They had fallen asleep because they were old and had a life to rest because. He had fallen asleep because he was lazy and an awful lay. The old lady suddenly walked fat to a chair and sat there, visibly content that she could finally rest somewhere from her walk from the bus stop. Marina joined him and asked her who she was visiting so she could ask others for her but the old lady suddenly fell asleep and wouldn’t wake up. She turned around and saw no one, no nurse or person in charge of the people there and decided to take a look around.

 She finally found someone in the reception, a man bored to death reading, or at least browsing, through a car magazine. She asked him if he could help her as a woman she came with had fallen asleep and they needed to fin the person she was coming to visit. The man ignored her and she had snap him out of it by slamming her hand on the counter. The creature then looked at her and told her to ask a nurse but Marina told him there were no nurses around. Bored to death, the man grabbed the phone and called somewhere. He talked for a long time with someone and then told Marina to head to the last room along the corridor. She would find someone there. Before leaving she realized that man was just as disgusting as the one she had sex with and it made her very uncomfortable.

 She walked to the last room along the corridor and found two nurses apparently organizing some pills in small plastic cups. She told them about her problem and, reluctantly, one of them joined him to the TV room. The nurse kneeled down and looked at the lady. It was obvious she knew her. The woman then grabbed the old lady’s wrist and waited for a moment. Then stood up and told Marina that the woman was a patient in the retirement home and that she wasn’t sleeping but had died. Marina’s jaw dropped but she didn’t even had time to say anything when the nurse asked her to leave as she wasn’t related to any of the patients. Marina wanted to know more about her friend but the nurse wouldn’t say a word and just joined her to the door.

 Minutes later, she was on another bus, but this time no one interesting sat down next to her. And her thought went, once again, to that disgusting man she had the bad idea of sleeping with.