for the past year i’ve worked at an italian restaurant, i befriended a woman named Karen who has multiple sclerosis and is wheelchair bound. she’s 50 years old, which is amazing that she managed to live that long, and has never been involved with a man before.
she’d always come in the nights i was working and get drunk off two glasses of wine which she drank out of a straw. she’d stare at me as i worked with red stains all around her mouth and summer dress. it made me uncomfortable at times. she asked me out on a date, which i politely lied and said “sorry i got a girlfriend” she then revealed that she has strong feelings for me.
i felt guilty for some reason. maybe i felt like i owed it to her because of the universe giving her such an unfair disadvantage at finding love.
but, lone behold, a month later, she rolled into the restaurant in a nice evening gown, being pushed by a guy named Mike. he was about her age, talked like daffy duck with bottle capped glasses, an untucked shirt and one of the friendliest guys i’ve met in a while. he’s 75% blind too.
i’d watch them from the bar as they ate spaghetti and drank wine talking about everything and anything until closing. he cared about her greatly, made sure she got into the bathroom okay, cut her food up, spoon feed her at times and gave her a kiss as he put her bib around her neck.
it was a great thing to witness every friday night for six months.
mike too had never been involved with a woman.
but karen revealed to me a few days ago that things were on the rocks. she didn’t explain why, but i could tell something was up when they came in last friday.
they ate their spaghetti in silence.
so i grabbed my camera and filmed them, feeling like this was the end of something.
i made sure that i was filming them on the side facing mike because he was 75% blind.
