Author Information
Virginie Roo
"I don't know what to tell you. I've never been good at depending on other people. Don't like the feeling of asking for help. So I've learned to do things on my own." You could tell by looking at her tanned face and well worn hands that she wasn't lying. Her clothing, ripped and frayed, splattered with stains (was that blood on her coat sleeve, "Yes it is" she said levelly, without his having asked. "I have nothing to hide") told the story of a woman who indeed "worked" for a living. With her whole body.
She twisted a joint while narrating a folktale about a disciple who was asked by his guru to go build an ashram in America. "Yes teacher, he says, but where will the money come from?"
She held the joint out to him. "No thanks", he twirled his pen and tapped his notebook with it.
"What's wrong? Afraid you'll forget you're here to do an article on me?" They sat in a booth of the local diner, her diner actually. His editor had 3 weeks earlier handed him his new assignment. "There's something strange going on there. Go find out what it is, then keep a lid on it." He'd been looking for her for 2 and a half of those weeks and this was his first sit down with her. Seems that wherever he was told she might be, she had mysteriously just left 5 minutes before.
"The old monk says to his student 'From wherever it is right now!' That blew my mind. After I read that, money started showing up. I would open a drawer, there'd be a wad of cash. It just kept happening." She put the joint to her lips, picked a book of matches out of an ashtray. "I had no idea that money would one day be used to fund a new infrastructure."
He baited, "A new government some say."
"And some folks say the world as we know it has ended." Striking a match, she lit the joint, inhaled deeply, "I say it's about fucking time." She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out 3 hundred dollar bills, winked at him and laid them on top of the lunch receipt, which was less than $10. "Keep the change Madge", she yelled out loudly and laughed heartily. Even though it was her restaurant, she always paid the check.
