I wanted to pick a real city to set this story in, because it would make this story more real. Sadly my experience of major international cities is limited. Finally I decided to pick a place that is a mix of a few cities I do know well. IF some things sound odd to you, remember, this is not set where you live… (when I say live.. I mean in a Westernized, industrial, urban settling… which this is not…) the place in question does exist and the inhabitants speak a kind of pidgin English that is incomprehensible to non-native speakers, as well as the dialects of several major languages…
For this story, everyone speaks like they come from jolly old England or where have you… in order to make this comprehensible.
So take it as if all this was translated from the original language.. which is a mystery X… I had to change quite a lot of details because otherwise this place will become quite recognizable to the people who do live there… and yes, they do come to this site….
Vanessa did not like the neighbourhood that she moved to, but she had no choice. Rent in Cessville was the cheapest anywhere in the city. She peeked out of the dingy window which was covered with a flowery but threadbare piece of curtain. She was glad that her only window faced a side street and not the main road that ran through Cessville. It was quiet at least and she was not able to see the neon signs on the main street that advertised the location of every bar and strip club in Cessville, especially the too bright, oversized sign of the "Venus Inn," the largest business in Cessville and a motel run by a crippled invalid who had lived in Cessville for as long as anyone could remember.
Vanessa remembered running into him a few days ago when she stopped by the local convenience store for some groceries. She had loaded the canned food and milk into her shopping bags and had just stepped out of the store when a large wheel nearly ran over her toes.
"Oh!" she nearly dropped the bags that she was carrying.
The wheelchair that clattered past her and painfully made a swipe at her hip screeched to a stop. She could tell that it was a rather new and nice model, in fact it seemed rather out of place in a neighbourhood where every other thing was dilapidated, torn or used too many times.
A man who was wearing a grey hoodie with a particularly deep hood sat in this out-of-place wheelchair. Vanessa realized that he had stopped because a newspaper wrapped package tumbled from his lap onto the pavement and he was using a cane that was lodged to the side of his wheelchair to move it nearer to where he was sitting.
Vanessa watched as he shuffled the package to the foot of the wheelchair and then leaned down rather painfully to grab a hold of it. However, no matter how hard he tried, he was not able to fish up the news-wrapped package.
Finally, in frustration, the hooded man raised his head and looked around. For the rest of her life, Vanessa would never forget what she saw next.
In an almost surreal moment, a man who sat in his chair, slumped in a despondent position and almost bent double looked up and around him. As his hooded face turned to look in her direction, she gasped in amazement. He was wearing a mask, a leather one that covered his entire face, even the shape of his mouth.
"Hey!" he called to her in a tone that was harsh, almost commanding. "Hey! Come over here!"
To her utter amazement, he pulled out a crumpled dollar bill and waved it at her.
"Come over here right now!"
She went over, bent down, picked up the package and dumped it onto his lap, then turned to move away quickly. He grabbed her hand and pushed the dollar bill into it. In annoyance, Vanessa pushed his hand away and thew the crumpled dollar into his face.
She felt like shouting at him, but it did not seem appropriate to be shouting at a pathetic but very nasty man on a wheel chair, but she did not like the way he waved the dollar at her too. What did he think she was? A cheap hooker, similar to the ladies who stood around the street corners near "Venus Inn"?
He kept shouting at her as she turned and walked off in the opposite direction. She had no idea what he was saying, but it sounded nasty enough for people to walk out of the sidewalk stores to stare at the commotion.