Louie & Women by Todd Walton

Author:Todd Walton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

16.

When Louie exited off Highway One and followed Ocean Street to Water Street, Water to Pacific Avenue, he felt as if he were entering a time warp. He found a place to park behind the bookshop, looked at himself in the mirror and tried to smooth down his unruly hair. Then he got out of the car, locked up, took a deep breath and headed for the mall.

To the uninitiated, it might have seemed that some sort of spring celebration was taking place, but it was a normal day on the Santa Cruz mall. Young transients stood in groups, sharing cigarettes and booze, panhandling from the slower passersby. A man with a parrot on his shoulder pedaled by on a unicycle, while a Mexican woman with a patch over one eye tried to sell Louie an ounce of marijuana. Tourists mingled with colorfully garbed hippies. Street musicians filled the air with song. An old man wearing a blue beret, white slacks, and white patent leather tap shoes danced to a trio of saxophonists playing bebop, a mere ten yards from where an old man was rendering Christian hymns on a saw. Two people asked Louie where the post office was, and several others asked him to sign petitions. A tiny barechested man, with gray hair down to his waist, begged Louie for spare pennies.

There were Hare Krishna people banging cymbals, black men playing congas, and two fat men singing along with a cassette recording of German folk songs. There were jugglers and preachers, vendors and lunatics, and for every one doing something, there were six people watching, and for each person watching, there were six more hurrying by, though where they were hurrying was a mystery Louie had never solved.

He was just about to go into the bakery when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around, expecting another panhandler, but was surprised to see a pretty young woman looking up at him, her mouth open in astonishment. It took him a moment to realize that it was the woman from under the bridge. Her hair had been cut extremely short and she was wearing a baggy white smock. She had a two-year-old child on her back and a sleeping infant strapped to her front. Holding out her hand expectantly, she asked, “Are you the guy who saved me?”

Louie nodded and she took hold of his wrist. “God,” she said, urgently, “thank God they didn’t kill you.” She let go of his wrist and put her arms around him, pressing her cheek against his chest. Louie sucked in his stomach to keep from crushing the infant, while the child on the woman’s back reached out and grabbed Louie’s hair.

“I’m outnumbered again,” said Louie, making a funny face at the child.

“Thank God,” the woman said again, standing on her tiptoes to kiss Louie’s cheek.

Louie waited for her to calm down, then stepped back from her and said, “My name is Louie.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said, laughing nervously. “I’m Chris.” She turned her head and looked at the child on her back.

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