the midget lady, the tea lady, and the girl in white selling illegal stuff

Sat for almost three hours in the food court at Market Village marking my students' writing assignments. They were given the topic: A good short story is _________. The have to fill in the blank and write out the metaphor. A good short story is the single red tomato on top of a green salad, a student wrote. I liked that one.

There were many gaps in time when I zoned out. I watched people as a running commentary travels from one side of my head to the other side but tragedy is how this commentary sometimes becomes a sort of interesting and hopeful narrative that doesn't get captioned. If all my thoughts are captioned and printed I would have written a shelf full of books by now.

A midget lady goes up to a vending stall to buy bubble tea. The top of her head is barely half way between the floor and the top of the counter. Even with her arms outstretched she cannot reach the top of the counter. The tea lady with the apron comes around to collect her money. Then she goes around back inside to make the tea. Then she comes around to give the midget lady her tea and her change.

At the shop where they sell copied VCDs, a girl of about high school age wearing a blank white t-shirt stands behind two tables set up at an 'L' shape. A collection of copied movies and music are on display with bright neon labels on the boxes that say, 3 for $20 etc etc. The girl's shoulders are slouched a little bit and her white shirt looks a bit big on her. She sees me glancing at her and the way she looks like she doesn't want to be there. There's an older man in the store, I know. I used to buy from him but I don't buy copied CDs anymore.