I was downstairs in my house and heard coming from far away a car with no muffler. It came closer and closer, finally stopping on my street and going silent. I didn't even look out the window. If I looked out the window at every strange sounding car I would be very busy. I live very, I cannot stress the very enough, close to the freeway. I can identify makes and models of motorcycles and vehicles by sound alone. You see its not the "whoosh" that many people hear who live close to a freeway. I live next to an on-ramp of a major freeway. It's even a hill so cars accelerate to get up to freeway speed and to make it up the sloping on-ramp. At commute I can look out from my kitchen window and see cars, buses, trucks and the like stacked high up from the ground and from my perspective driving up into the sky.
Over the next few days I heard this car coming again and again to my street. As I was leaving for work one afternoon I heard it coming and saw that it was an old white 4 door honda. The car pulled up to a parked car, and older woman got out and ran over to the parked car. She thrust in a small paper bag and was given back some money. I went on to work thinking it was no big deal. If I called in every suspected drug deal to the cops I would be late for work a lot. For the next week this lady came 4-6 times a day to my street making what looked to be deliveries.
My street is kind of hidden. You could drive by it and not see it even though we are in the middle of this huge city. It's a place where many freeways come together and can be a pain to get around. So basically I live on one block surrounded on three sides by the freeway. If you know your way around this neighborhood my street is a sweet shortcut. When we moved here we could not get a pizza delivered all the way to the house. The delivery person would get lost and one of us would have to go meet him. Which really is not "delivery," right? After living here for many years thank god we can now get a pizza all the way to the door 9 times out of 10.
So when I say my street that's really what I mean. There is my house, a small apartment building next door.
Next to that a crazy-ass hotel and across the street a big office building. So there are cars whizzing aound us day and night but we really are more alone than most city dwellers.
One night the wife and I were making dinner and we realize we were out of something. The wife offered to go to the local quickie mart which is a short walk away. She left and came back a little while later with a huge grin. I had noticed the honda buzzing around our street while she was out. The wife tells me this nice older lady called her over to the car as she was coming back from the mart, not feeling threatened by a nicely dressed older woman she moved closer and asked her what she wanted.
"You drink?" said the lady
"Well sure." replied the wife.
The lady looked at her closely and said "do you drink brandy?"
"I guess I would." Said the wife.
"Well honey, I always got some to sell, so if you see me and want some you just call out and let me know!" With that she started up her car and drove away. The wife, who is not easily flabbergasted, composed herself and then came to let me know the good news.
And lo, the Brandy Lady was born!
HAHA! I love it!!! So that's where you've been getting your stash!
Posted by: Robin | July 13, 2007 at 10:27 PM
Great story!
Posted by: Angela | July 17, 2007 at 12:18 PM