People in the City

There was the guy who stands near Pioneer Square and sprays his entire body with silver paint and stands like a statue all day for some money that people may drop in his box, or maybe he does something, but I was thinking maybe he just remains a mute statue. I saw him preparing for his gig the other day, sitting in the shade of a tree and spraying himself down. Everything was silver on him except for his arms, and just as he started on his left arm, the spray can was out, emptied. He was taken aback, and this was obvious in spite of the sunglasses shielding his eyes. The man paused thoughtfully for some time, seeming near the brink of a silent panic. Maybe he had come a long way from home that morning and there was no money or no spray paint to buy anywhere around. Perhaps he had thought about why he didn't buy an extra can the last time he went out and shopped for it; he remembered standing in line at the hardware store debating whether or not to get an extra can "because he'd have to get another anyway sooner or later," as the cashier line slowly inched forward and he decided against buying one more.
The man's arms dropped, slouched down slightly in defeat. What to do? I kept walking.

Later in the early evening, the city was cooling and the park on Salmon between 3rd and 4th was sparsely populated. A guy with mangy long hair and a weathered face wandered with a delicate lack of coordination, probably wasn't drunk, but simply woozy from the heat wave that struck town earlier in the week. He finally chose the right patch of grass to lay down in after a few moments of inspection. "This is a good place," he must have thought. He sat down at first and put forth what seemed a bit of energy to do so. And then extended himself to lie down and with his upper torso still bent upward, stuck his already lit cigarette into one end of a long green straw. He put the other end in his mouth as he put his head back to the earth and lay his arms outstretched on either side. He took a drag, and lifted a hand to pull the contraption out of his mouth. "What an innovation," he thought to himself.