crooked

       An office building on the south-east corner of University and Dundas, formerly a government building, was now a vacant space open to the next bidder. There is the alcove of the building left to accumulate debris and wayfarrers.
        In this alcove was a spindly woman, a collection of acute angles, who squatted on the pavement, knees drawn to her chest and arms limply sagged at her sides. Immobile, the woman stared sullenly through her imbalanced glasses and past the strands that hung limply over her face. Anybody that saw her gaze, enraptured in some unknown terribly harmonious inner world, may conclude that a tragedy or miracle could unfold before her, yet she would remain unmoved.
        In this busy intersection the masses stride heedlessly by to spare the woman no more than a curious glance as they walked by. Her worldly possessions were nothing more than a few plastic bags of clothing, toiletries and the dust filmed pink track suit she always wore.
        At the approach of dusk she spindled away in search of a safer place to sleep through the oncoming evening, unmolested. On one particular night this �dazed one� headed to Hagerman Street, which is a back alley in the heart of the city, but away from the arterial flow of human traffic. She found a smaller alcove which was nothing more than a doorway to place her belongings. Then she pulled empty cardboard boxes out of a nearby dumpster. With the plastic bags as a cushion the boxes were pulled over to conceal her meager frame. If luck and illusion held, no one noticed her.
        At dawn the sun illuminated the alleyway and shone through the boxes in fine darts and slices. The light roused her to gradual consciousness, and awareness of the spirit shattering surroundings. The boxes were pushed off, and the long black strands brushed aside from her face to reveal a light caramel colored complexion with fine lines that creased the face, and the hints of even deeper lines yet to be set. Her lips thin and could barely cover the protruding crooked upper teeth. She had slept with her glasses on, tilted to one side and at the end of her nose as if just struck across the face.