24 <strong>The</strong> Offering Gillian Naro
Meeting the <strong>The</strong>ologian Lori Green <strong>The</strong> sky is spread, covered uniformly with clouds that blend and bear down on the small city. Down from there are the tops <strong>of</strong> the highest buildings, flat squares mostly. Next are apartment balconies, shop awnings, business names spelled out and <strong>of</strong>ten missing letters at night. It is not night, but rather dusk, and at street level, a young woman walks briskly past a large green square. She darts in a gap between cars, making a diagonal and intersecting crosswalk lines at random angles. She holds the bottom <strong>of</strong> her dress down, pinned against the wind. Unseen in this modest making movement, she enters a small place to eat. <strong>The</strong> door swings shut, and she sets her bag down at a table by the large glass windows. She stands idling in line and orders a tea. Her eyes are deep set, watchful and dart from a high framed picture, to the outside sidewalk, to the menu and then to the other tables, where she sees a similarly aged female. <strong>The</strong>y both smile, and the young woman named Elena sits down with her friend with her tea. <strong>The</strong>y speak, lowering and raising their voices in rhythm. <strong>The</strong> table is littered with studious debris. A child psychology book is opened to a page in the hundreds, a laptop with ear-buds and a low battery is directly before the friend, and the dregs <strong>of</strong> an overpriced c<strong>of</strong>fee slowly lose warmth. “So much reading tonight,” but they talk for a few minutes, in a language filled with references to intensely interrelated lives. <strong>The</strong> sky grows heavier, seeming closer to the tops <strong>of</strong> buildings, and the two young women sit and speak, laugh <strong>of</strong>ten, exchange looks over new customers. A man in a long, thick leather jacket walks in, rushed and with tense shoulders. Elena raises her eyebrows, nods and says quietly, “Nice jacket.” Her friend’s eyes flash for a moment, mockingly. Speech slows. <strong>The</strong>y sit back further in their chairs with s<strong>of</strong>ter laughter. In a moment, they’ve smiled their temporary goodbyes, the friend goes back to work, and Elena is sitting at her nearby, original table with her tea and open 25