Recently, I have had a couple of strange encounters that makes me think I may not be the only black, female, little person with a red afro in Bed Stuy.
The other night, I got off the subway and headed towards the corner grocery store. As I approached the store, I heard this woman frantically screaming. This being a fairly common occurrence in Bed Stuy, I didn’t turn around right away. But this woman just kept screaming “Miss, Miss.” “Excuse Me!!!” Um Hellooo..Miss.” When I finally turned around to see the crazy lady, she was right behind me and out of breath. I realized I was the “Miss” and I had never seen this woman before in my life. I said “Hi” and then she said, “My daughter is graduating from High School and I need a seamstress.” My face must have said “Huh?” Cause she asked, “Aren’t you the seamstress?” I said, “No, sorry.” My response didn’t seem to faze her, because she continued. “I need someone to make an outfit for my daughter, we didn’t realize she was going to graduate until today. We only have two weeks.” It seemed she was under the delusion, if she pled her case well, I might agree to be her seamstress. (Like I was lying about my identity and just refusing to take her business.) I said, “No, I’m sorry that’s not me.” Then she said, “I should have kept her number. Well, I thought it was you.” Then she muttered under her breath, “There must be another one, I need the other one.”
Two days later, I ran into my elderly neighbor (persistent suitor) on my way to the subway. He asked, “Can I drive you to work?” I said “Oh, No Thank You.” (exaggerating how thankful I was.) Then he said, “I have a car, I can drive you.” “You wouldn’t have to pay for a cab.” I said “No thanks, I’m fine, I take the subway to work.” Then he said, “You have that store over on Fulton, it’s a quick ride.” I said, “No, I work in the city.” “Oh, someone told me you had a tailoring store over on Fulton.” “Nope, that’s not me.”
Hmmm……… Me thinks we may have another Pam situation on our hands.
