Fall 2011 - The University of Scranton

Meeting the Theologian
Lori Green
The sky is spread, covered uniformly with clouds that blend
and bear down on the small city. Down from there are the tops of the
highest buildings, flat squares mostly. Next are apartment balconies, shop
awnings, business names spelled out and often 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 of her dress down, pinned against the wind. Unseen in this modest
making movement, she enters a small place to eat.
The 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. They both smile, and the young woman named
Elena sits down with her friend with her tea. They speak, lowering and
raising their voices in rhythm. The 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 of
an overpriced coffee slowly lose warmth. “So much reading tonight,” but
they talk for a few minutes, in a language filled with references to intensely
interrelated lives.
The sky grows heavier, seeming closer to the tops of buildings, and
the two young women sit and speak, laugh often, 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.
They sit back further in their chairs with softer 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
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