BROOKS AVENUE CHRISTMAS
The story of a building and a woman and a bad night and a good day Van Stanley walked out near closing time two days before Christmas, onto the sidewalk along Brooks Avenue, in the dark of a winter night, and saw him. Her alarm and reaction were as much instinctual as anything else, he was saying something she couldn’t make out, and moving toward her, and she retreated. A step, and another step, and a turn and run and a bolt through the door.
She was 53, and five-foot-four, and though she worked 12-hour days at the restaurant, she often stooped at the lower back, caught with stiffness and discomfort, and she was not a young woman, and she was not accustomed to running.