The greeting on a chilly rainy day
The girl is looking down at the street at the window,
that is on the second floor of a small deli,
a run-down deli on 132nd St.
When the sun rises, soon she sits on a chair by the window.
She is watching the street until the sun sets.
But on a rainy day,only on a chilly rainy day like today,
she carries out the chair and places it on left side of the deli's entrance,
then sits on the chair and starts watching the street,
the same as she watches the street from the second floor's window.
She is sitting quietly,hardly moves,
it seems that as if she was an object or something.
She is blind.
You know, it's almost deserted around there.
Bus comes once in three hours, there are lots of rats,
it's a really dirty place.
So, there is a small blue rat among the rats.
Truly, it's a blue rat, a small blue rat that always gets soaked.
The rat is coming up in front of her chair.
The rat shows up on a rainy day, only on a chilly rainy day like today.
Anyway, the rat's coming up in front of her chair and looking up at her.
She nods to him slightly and smiles,
then the rat nods to her slightly and smiles, too.
Though I don't think you believe me.
Then, he, the blue rat, gets to under her chair.
Maybe he is drying his soaked body. He always gets soaked.
He stays at there for a good hour.
Then he comes in front of her chair and does again the same thing that they did when they met.
They nod to each other slightly and smile.
After that the rat goes back to somewhere, in the chilly rain so he gets soaked again.
She is watching his back, going on his way--yes, she is blind-- anyway,
when she loses his back, she starts to watch the street as usual.
I heard that she was suffering from leukemia. I don't know if she became blind because of it.
Anyway, She died last winter.
It'd been so hot for days a week before she died,
you remember then, don't you?
It was a record heat and the homeless people died from heatstroke then.
And then terrible rain continued for around a month.
Anyway, she was the only daughter of the woman in the deli.
You know the woman, the deli's owner.
The fat woman, she is always irritated.
Well,she has become calmly since her daughter died.
Besides her business turned up suddenly,
I hardly remember that her deli had almost no customer before then.
So, she, the woman places the same chair at the same place,
just in the same way that her daughter used to do,
even it's only on a rainy day as well.
This is the story about the chair.
I've never seen anybody else sits on the chair.
Even though I think there hardly are people who know this story.
So, maybe around three o'clock,
it's the time you don't see anyone else on the street,
the rat shows up.
The deli has lots of costumers now but basically,
that area's still deserted that you won't see a soul on the street especially on a rainy day's afternoon like today.
Anyway, the rat is quite different from the small blue one.
Well, this one is just a common one, a common sewer-rat.
And the woman comes out of the deli just when the rat comes to the deli.
She is expecting the rat.
I don't know how she knows the time the rat shows up.
It's about three o'clock but at the exact time the rat shows up,
she comes out to see the rat.
It seems that as if they've made an appointment.
Then they exchange greetings.
But their greetings are really quick and there's almost no motion,
you hardly notice it.
I can't tell you whether they actually greet.
The rat doesn't get soaked, and after the greeting,
he goes on his way.