Sweet Corn in Los Angeles

I’m a renegade parker. Worst yet, I got nabbed. I woke up early this morning and took a train downtown to take care of a parking ticket from a year ago. Red tape. I got off the train and walked over to the hearing office. I never wanted a hearing. All I wanted was leniency on the bail. Somehow I didn’t follow protocol and I received three letters from the city on the same day. The letters all said something different. One of the letters said there was a hearing scheduled for me. I went with that one. I made a point of showing up to avoid more trouble.

Everything was loosey-goosy at first. The woman administering the hearing and I were laughing about our glasses, and how we couldn’t see with them even though I had bifocals and she had trifocals. I liked the woman right off. But then we got down to business. It was very official. The proceedings were recorded on an old cassette tape machine. I don’t have anything against cassette tapes, but it did seem somewhat antiquated. She asked me a few questions. I answered them. I was guilty. I couldn’t talk my way out of it. I told my story and the woman instantly turned on me. The fun vanished in an instant. I tried to negotiate for a reduced bail. That didn’t work. The best I could do was to set up a payment plan. The woman walked me out of the office and her face was cold, as if somehow I offended her with my testimony. I was the victim of a moronic meter maid, but the lady didn’t see it that way.

I walked back toward Union Station to catch a train. I veered left and walked through Olvera Street. Very little had changed over the years. It was still colorful. Still Mexican. From there I walked into Union station and admired the giant wood beams that held up the ceiling. They did it right when they built that place. I walked to my train platform and waited a few minutes, before a train arrived. I boarded the train and sat down. There was a older heavy set Asian woman sitting across from me. She looked kind of crazy. She was holding a napkin to her nose, and was sniffing it. Then the lady put the napkin under her armpit. She wiped her armpit and smelled the napkin again. It was a hot day and I started to think about how the napkin smelled. I was hoping she would stop. She didn’t. She shoved the napkin down her blouse and wiped around her breast. She had big saggy breast. She sniffed the napkin again. That’s it! I got up and moved to another seat. I found a empty seat by a window. The train rolled by a park. The park had a plot of sweet corn growing, sweet corn in Los Angeles.