While I was drawing this, I looked up to see a woman wearing the uniform of a well-known bank, the bank I bank at, staring down at me, smiling.
The woman was tapping at the back of her hands and mouthing something.
I took off my headphones.
‘Sorry,’ I said, ‘what was that?’
‘Looks like you’re a fan of old skool,’ she said, pointing to the tattoos on the backs of my hands.
‘I am,’ I said to the woman, and smiled. ‘What do you have?’
‘Here,’ said the woman, pulling up her sleeve to reveal a large dagger through a heart covering most of the underside of her forearm.
‘Ooh,’ I said. ‘That’s very, very, very, very nice.’
The woman said thanks and then asked me what I was doing sitting in the street.
I told her about the A Hundred Houses project, explaining that the drawings are accompanied by stories, and let her know that she would be number 75.
‘Oh, awesome,’ said the woman. ‘What will you call my story?’
‘I dunno,’ I said. ‘What would you like me to call it?’
‘Um . . .’ she said, ‘Kelly with the tattoo of a dagger on her arm who works in the bank but wishes she didn’t.’
‘Okay,’ I said, as we both laughed.
Today’s listening: Dr. Anna Lembke-Health Matters 2022: Pain, Pleasure, and the Addictive Chase for Dopamine
A Hundred Houses 