The Third Car
Alice works at a lighting store on Broadway and hates mushrooms. Listening to rock makes her feel young, Alice reads magazines about birds and knows that ostriches have the largest eyes of any animal and that theoretically, baby birds can have siblings of differing species. Alice knows this is because fowl such as the brown-headed crow lay their eggs in the nest of other birds. This fact Alice finds particularly heartwarming, as she herself is adopted. Two brothers, both older. `We're not very close but perfectly friendly, very civil. Different worldviews, that’s all!’. Alice utters variations of the above sentence every time Tod with one D asks about her family relations, which is approximately every 14 days, as there is much time for chatting between the two employees of Williams Lights-- the shop is rarely frequented. Stephanie, age 14 and living above the shop, apt #2B, believes the store is a front, of what variety she does not know. ‘I live above some type of drug front’ she recycles this line to the friends who come and go but mostly go. Tod with one D isn’t the most creative of conversationalists, and therefore, in moments of self-imposed desperation, reverts to the subject of family relations. On each occasion, Alice repeats the same answer, graciously. Alice listens to audiobooks while dusting the glass and porcelain lamp necks of the shop. Tod has never asked Alice about birds because Alice unconsciously prefers to keep her bird knowledge hidden. When researching, she underlines the scientific bird names in blue pencil and forgets to look them up afterward. Alice works from 10 am-5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday. On Sunday mornings she buys carrots at the farmers market and sometimes potatoes or brussel sprouts, but always carrots. Alice likes to sit in her plush green chair, the one with the wooden legs. She drinks three or four cups of tea per day and gets seasonal allergies so bad she occasionally can’t leave the house. Alice takes the F train--12 minutes walk, 13 minutes train, 11 minutes walk -- to Williams lights. Today Alice is wearing a floral silk blouse and skinny jeans. Facial wrinkles covered generously in foundation, she enters the third car. A podcast on robin’s mating patterns streams through her black cordless earbuds. Alice is on the train.
