Mary Kate Simmons

Mary Kate Simmons is a writer and a social justice advocate. Her writing has appeared in The Downtowner and The Montclair Times. Currently working on a memoir about surviving encephalitis and meningitis, she resides in New Jersey with an edible flower and herb filled balcony.

A Flash of Newark

She left the library in her sneakers and her blue and white polka dotted, flouncy, Spring dress. At the corner, a homeless man asked her for her socks. She stopped to consider the unusual request, when he explained his feet were blistered and the cottony socks would be comforting.

Sockless, she hurried down the wide, urine-soaked concrete stairs to catch the Newark subway. The train was there and she slipped in as the doors closed behind her. She was lucky. Night was falling and she didn’t want to walk home in the pitch black of the night. She took a seat in the middle of the train where the seats faced each other.

At the next stop, a young man wearing a white Hanes t-shirt, arms riddled with crude, possibly hand drawn, tattoos, a thick gold chain necklace, jeans, and Timberland boots with the brand name tag dangling from its shoelaces, entered and sat diagonally across from her. He looked over at her and then away, several times. The woman clutched her work tote and pocketbook, wondering if the tattoos were gang markings. Or was the white t-shirt, the street gang attire?

Gradually, the train emptied out until it was only the two of them. Feeling defiant, the woman looked back when the young man shot her another look. He looked away.

Finally, it was her stop. She got up and had the sensation of air whooshing past her derrière. Suddenly, she realized she had accidentally tucked her wide skirt into her pantyhose.