Miniapolis, Oct 10, 2003



"SHOE SHINE", said the board. Another one said "OPEN".

The man was seated in a chair, waiting. I looked curiously at the boards, his equipment, the enclosure he had in a corner. Its unlikely for such a shop to be there in an airport; how would the authorities have granted permission, I wondered. Oh, he even had a credit card machine. He looked young as far as I could tell, he was at quite a distance; I could barely notice his features. What would he say to a girl he would go out with: you know if he dated them.
He caught me looking at him while I was thinking. It seemed to me as if he could read my thoughts: it felt awkward, I looked away.

"Here, you wanna read about the Kobe Bryant case", Yan offered me a magazine.
"Sure"

I looked back up. I saw a tall man in a very tall chair, and the shoe shine man working on his shoes. The tall man was talking on his cell phone. A tall man in a very tall chair on his cell phone, and the shoe shine man working on his shoes: it looked fascinating. I wondered if I felt disgusted. I wondered how shameful could it feel to be talking on a cell phone when somebody was shining your shoes, and you were seated in an elevated chair like that. I wondered what would it take for me to do a shoe shine job like that - dignity of labor is what they say. What if I had no job, no security, no place to live: could I be a shoe shine man? I don't know, but if I had the largest house in the world and the highest salary in the country, I would never choose to be the tall man in the tall chair talking on his cell phone.

I saw the tall man get up from the chair. He finished talking and handed over a bill to the shoe shine man. He started to leave, he passed right in front of me. He was a very tall man, I looked at his shoes, they were black, they had a mirror like shine, I could see reflection of objects in them. I wondered if ever the tall man would choose to see the reflection of his face in his black shoes: it would look black. The shoes would soon get dusty, they would lose the shine, and he would never recall the shoe shine man again.

Kobe Brant raped a woman from behind. He could end up spending 4 years to lifetime in prison. He may not be able to play basketball again, or may be they'll set him free, he has tonnes of money to spare... to hire expensive attorneys.


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