Two men walking up and down the sidewalk, passing each other occasionally, screaming out the great deal their employer is offering from their pawn shop. It is a rather warm day in the middle of winter, and most people on this busy street are just milling around. A woman is a among the half dozen people waiting for one of the three buses at the bus stop in front of the pawn shop, which is squeezed between "Harlem Foods" that doesn't actually sell any food and a deli that purports to be open 24/7. While the men walk with their big and colorful placards on their chests, boasting "big dollers [sic]", the woman looks into the distance, checking for any sign of the airport bus. She has just one piece of luggage, a big black suitcase, and nothing else, no hand bags, no duffle bag, not even a purse. She is not mindful or is completely oblivious of the business that is happening around her. A man comes out of a crack in the fence behind which no building seems to be functioning. Another man talks in a nearly incomprehensible slang and accent to another one, both very animated but not angry. Across the street a mother in some African-like dress and head wrap is pushing a baby carriage with a screaming baby, passing in front of a bakery that doubles as an eatery.
A bus comes, but not the airport bus. The woman continues to stand there, stretching her neck a little to see if there's any other bus coming. She knows that the bus comes quite often, but the disappointment with this arriving bus increased her anxiety a little. A young man with a baseball cap worn reversed is leaning on one of the walls of the bus stop, and eyes her from behind from head to toe, and back up. He's wearing a Chicago Bulls jacket and a big golden chain around his neck over a black shirt underneath. But after a few more rounds of inspection, he loses interest and takes out his cell phone to compose a text message. The old lady in front of him just now, very short, with gray hair like a nest sitting on her wrinkly head, slowly ascends the bus that had just arrived. Two women, young like the one with the suitcase, run up to the bus, with big smiles of relief. While waiting for the old lady to slow climb up the bus and slowly pay for her fare with a bag full of coins, the two women stub out their cigarettes and giggle. At this point the young man with the Bulls jacket looks at the two women, and keeps his stalking eyes on them until they disappear behind the closing doors of the bus.
Finally, the airport-bound city bus arrives. The woman reaches into her right pocket of the jacket and takes out her metrocard. Two teenage boys walk past behind her, talking Spanish while munching the fried chicken from the fast food restaurant across the street. They crossed over to this side to go to the very dingy and suspiciously looking hotel at the corner. And they didn't notice the woman with the single piece of luggage going in with a very glum face. She would keep that emotionless face through out her trip, in the bus, at checkin, through security, at the gate waiting, on the plane, during the flight, and at the baggage claim, where she will reclaim that one piece of luggage of hers before being greeted by another public bus that she would have to wait, that would take her back home where other people with even sadder faces await her.
