Compassion

Cornelia sat against the red flowered wallpaper in her turquoise party dress in the lobby of the hotel and watched people walk past her as they cast a sideways glance at her, probably wondering where she got her beautiful dress or who she was waiting for, each in their own little private bubble of happiness and celebration because they were staying in the hotel for a reason, maybe a wedding or a party or a little weekend getaway or maybe a funeral in honor of the life of someone who they had loved very dearly, hand in hand with their lovers or their children or their luggage and checking in at the front desk where they exchanged their financial information and asked about a good place to get a late lunch or pick up a few toiletries for their stay in the city and then they’d leave their luggage with the bellhop and walk past Cornelia again, staring a little bit longer this time and giving her a sympathetic smile because they too knew what it was like to wait for somebody, and then they would leave the hotel for a few hours to get some things done before their big nights of felicity and cheer and when the sun was beginning to set they would return to the hotel and stride past Cornelia, this time ignoring her and only staring back at her when they were far enough away that they thought she wouldn’t notice and she would smile at them when they turned so that they would quickly turn away as if they weren’t looking and Cornelia slumped a little lower down the wall and straightened out the tulle skirt of her party dress and wiped a fleck of dirt off her patent leather shoes and surveyed the lobby again checking for newcomers and the new bellhop and the night-shift manager because if the night-shift manager arrived she would have to leave quietly or else he would kick her out and tell her that there was no place for a homeless delusional freak in the lobby of his hotel and she would have to go back out into the cold night without any coat and find a new hotel lobby to sleep in.

(Note to reader from the author:  this story is best read out loud)

Tovah is a rather tall girl from Minneapolis. She is majoring in English and minoring in Creative Writing and is considering the perks of being jobless after graduation. She is currently studying in Barcelona.