relationship

A moment in the life of Desdemona

THE SUBWAY

It was a hot humid summer day in . Desdemona was walking down the crowded streets of downtown Montreal making her way back home when it started to downpour. Not wanting to ruin her retro 50's black lace dress..

She slipped underground like the other moles int to subway system with all those other people who smelled of sweat; most of them ugly. "How common!" she thought. She kept screaming in her head..."I HATE THIS!!!!" " I should be in my own car, or at least in a cab!" The subway ride represented what she did not want to be, common, just a number among the masses..she thought of her rich lover who she just saw for the last time. He had never been on a subway train, or any other type of public transportation in his life. Being with him she hoped to accomplish uncommonness by association. Having this jet setting lover, no matter how inadequate he was, made her feel just a little bit special. She kept telling herself that she deserved a better life than the one she had; even though she had not done much to get it for herself. still she pondered, "If only he would take me with him, he could make me special and save me from this mundane life I live."

Desdemona emerged from underground and into the Gay Village where she lives with her unemployed husband and his disabled mother in a government subsidized housing complex. Its muggy out; the streets and clubs are crowded. Men with men, women with women holding hands, kissing, cruising.. She glides by walking past them. Walking towards her building she sees the ambulance parked in front and thinks to herself sarcastically, "The 'moving van' is here again." wondering which of the neighbors is 'checking out' Entering the building Desdemona holds her breath, she always does this. The smell of death is permanent; it is the tenants who are not.
She walks down the halls of this depressing but familiar home. she enters her apartment and see's her broke but loving man waiting to greet her. She gives him a small smile showing no hint of her feeling like a heel..