Not too long ago I used to be employed at O'Hare airport as a passenger service assistant, where I would normally push wheelchairs for the elderly and the lazy, bound to receive tips on a $5 salary and working extensive and unfair hours to help those in need and those who were too goddamn lethargic to move themselves from one gate to another. While training, our master (who was using a power chair) pointed out a distinctive large black woman, who was way out of shape to the point where her only walking pace was approximately half-of-one-miles-per-hour and her raggedy clothing revealed spots of the human body that shouldn't be enlarged, like her stomach and her feet. She was seen laying down in the lower levels of the terminal, basically the floor for arrivals at the airport, on the benches where passengers would normally sit to wait for their ride or baggage.
Our master pointed out that she is here frequently, but I know her for being the Odor Stroller, for I used to always catch her on the Blue Line asking for cancer sticks, stinking up the place with a stench so strong even the complete strangers sitting near me were wielding the face of pure agony; a face so universal that even the "stench" itself sketches the reaction as you read it. I wish I had nothing against this woman, but for someone to constantly ask for cigarettes with a odor so intense it makes you'll be keeping your actual shit as a piece of furniture to remember the good ol' days of your dung's stench is kind of difficult to uphold.
Our group was proceeding forward with the job's training, but my whole attention was stolen by the Odor Stroller. It just shocked me to see her achieving slumber by means of public rest, but the effect became long-lasting when I would see her on the train and eventually in the Loop, maintaining her prevalent usage of cussing and ranting, like some other crackhead you spot on the train: "Wan't my folt, mang. Nah, dat is booshit," one would yap about, to no one, at a loud volume. Fortunately for me I was on the other side of the street, safe and away from a human so peculiar you can't miss her once you spot her on the street, slowly sauntering one foot at a time while she blathers on.
September 19th, 2016.
