While I was drawing this, I looked up to see a young man standing just off to my right, staring down at my drawing, and smiling.
I took off my headphones and smiled up at him.
‘Hi,’ the young man said. ‘I hope I didn’t frighten you. I just wanted to see what you were doing.’
I told the young man about the A Hundred Houses project, and the stories, alerting him to the fact that he would probably be today’s story.
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘In that case, my name is Fernando.’
I told the young man my name, and he asked me where I was from.
‘I am from Australia, originally,’ I said to him, ‘but I was living in England for a long time.’
‘Oh!’ said the young man, eagerness in his voice. ‘Do you know Robert Smith?’
I told the young man no, that I don’t know Robert Smith, at the same time thinking that though England is a small place, it has a lot of Smiths.
‘I really like the Cure,’ the young man then said.
‘Oh,’ I said, ‘THAT Robert Smith!’
‘I saw them play once,’ the young man told me, ‘and I’m going to see Paul McCartney soon.’
‘Oh, wonderful!’ I replied.
‘Yeh,’ he said. ‘I just wanna go because I’ve never seen a Beatle.’
Today’s listening: Judith Grisel, Ph.D.: “Never Enough: How Affective Homeostasis Creates Addiction”
A Hundred Houses 