THE SHADOWS OF HIS EYES
The scene, as I saw it, was straight out of Midnight Cowboy. A Greyhound, northbound, was hauling its cargo of students, mothers, screaming babies, and assorted deadbeats. Sailors from Norfolk Naval Station rounded out the eclectic display. It struck me as the height of neo-realism, even though it was real. Truth be told, it was all somewhat unnerving, at least for me. My first close encounter with this side of life. Now I saw it was too close for comfort. Too much caught my eye which I had never seen and would have rather missed.
Funny, I had never seen myself as naive before. Sheltered, to be sure. Still, I thought I'd managed to experience it all. My powers of observation were keen, I believed. In fact, I saw myself as one of life's great analysts and critics from afar. Always from afar. I enjoyed every sordid slice of life that surfaced on the news and on late-night. I found the real thing, sans Dan Rather, to be less palatable, though. It interfered with my prescribed view of life - 16" * 24", with remote control.
There I was, nibbling my cuticles, as all matter of existence unfolded around me. To my right, a man with no lashes or eyebrows was sniffing something in a paper bag. So they really did stash it in paper bags. He looked at me and snorted. I averted my eyes. It wasn't that I was repulsed by him wiping his nose on the back of his New York Knicks' cap. Nor did I mind that he had dandruff and that he scratched himself and had no teeth. My looking away was an involuntary reaction, like a baby crying when it was born.
I turned my attention on a woman busy in the next row. She's was baby-talking to something, which wasn't a kid, nestled in the seat beside her. Since she was built like Raquel Welch - or Pamela Lee, to be up-to-date - it came as no surprise that all the sailors had turned to check her out. Now, they seemed to have noticed something else as well.
"What the hell's that smell?" asked one with a fat, pimply face.
"Wha- Oh shit" said another, who looked like Randy Quaid. "Dammit, lady, this ain't Paris you know. Ya mean to tell me the driver actually let you on with that? Did he think ya were blind or something?"
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