Page 39 of Two Kinds of Stranger

She exits the Starbucks with a coffee. She walks through the crowded streets of Manhattan, smiling. She enters a CVS.

ELLY: I’ve been meaning to stock up on essentials. It has been such a crazy, busy, amazing time lately that I’ve run out of my go-to everyday products.

The young woman grabs a basket and starts filling it up with beauty and grooming products as she moves through the store. She picks up two tubes of toothpaste, two packs of dental floss, two rolls of antiperspirant deodorant, two bottles of hair spray, two bottles of hair mousse, two tubs of moisturizer, two tubes of foundation, two bottles of eyedrops, two tubes of face wash. More products fill the basket too quickly to see, faster and faster.

A bedroom. The young woman pours the contents of a CVS bag onto the bed. She picks up the first item. Then the next as she describes them.

ELLY: Everybody needs a good toothpaste. Turns out they’re, like, pretty much all the same, so I just buy one with a flip top, so I don’t lose the cap. Next, eye drops. If you’re living in a city like New York, yes, you will have an amazing time, but air quality is just not great and my eyes tend to dry out. These eye drops, just once or twice a day, total game changer. No point in havinggorgeous eye make-up if your actual eyes make it look like you’re in a zombie movie. Moving on, facial wash. I need to use this every day. It’s really like a facial scrub, but it’s not too harsh. You know what I mean. You can feel like you’ve been washing your face with sandpaper sometimes. And the rest of the stuff in here, well, you don’t need me to go through it all again. You know my choice bargains. Anyway, I didn’t just buy one bag...

The young woman holds up a second CVS bag.

The young woman walks through city streets. The Empire State Building is visible behind her. She enters a brick building and speaks to a woman in an office.

ELLY VOICE-OVER: This is a women’s shelter in SoHo. Some women escape abusive, violent relationships with just the clothes they’re standing in. So, when I stock up on essentials, I always buy two of everything. One for me, one for someone who might really need and appreciate it. This is my random act of kindness for today. If you want to be a part of the daily RAKs, but you can’t think of what to do, my advice is to just buy two of something that you buy regularly. Could be you get an extra sandwich at lunch for a homeless person, or even something as small as an extra tube of toothpaste. I know somebody will really appreciate it.

It is later in the day, and the young woman sits in a Starbucks at a table beside a good-looking young man in a suit, JAMES, and another young woman with blond hair and a black coat, HARRIET, who sits opposite.

ELLY: I’m so glad I have you both in my life.

JAMES: Aww, I love you, princess.

HARRIET: You two are so sweet.

Elly closes her eyes. James glances at Harriet, then lightly kisses Elly. Elly smiles. The three of them laugh together.

ELLY VOICE-OVER: I’m so lucky to have a husband and a good friend that I can always rely on. What was your last RAK? Let me know in the comments...

#cvs #cvsessentials #Starbies #RAK

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Logan

The Manhattan skyline, in winter, set behind a huge moon, is one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

Logan stood in one of the best spots to take in this view.

It wasn’t from the top of the Rockefeller Center.

It wasn’t from the viewing platform of the Empire State Building.

Logan stood, in total darkness, surrounded by three million dead.

On a hill, among the tombstones of Calvary Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens, his breath misted as he took in the island of Manhattan. The electric glow from the city towers stretched and rippled upon the surface of the East River, like starlight trapped deep beneath tinted glass. Gravestones, mausoleums and commemorative statues surrounded Logan and occasionally caught fragments of light here and there, and appeared to him, for a moment, as a miniature reflection of the city–as if the tombstones were tiny buildings, and Logan a dark giant among them.

New York’s necropolis had first opened in 1848, a Catholic burial ground with its inaugural internment, reportedly, a woman named Esther Ennis, Irish and poor, who is said to have died of a broken heart.

The cholera, influenza and tuberculosis epidemics quickly filled what would become the first section of the cemetery.Half of those who were buried here during those periods were poor Irish children. It is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, with burials still taking place in different sections. It is the resting place of entertainers, military heroes, mobsters and ordinary citizens of New York.

Before he got back to his work, Logan quietened his breath, listened hard and silently turned three hundred and sixty degrees, taking in this corner of the cemetery, watchful for anything that might look like the traces of a flashlight. Due to some recent vandalism, and the usual problem of kids drinking six-packs and getting high, the security patrol had stepped up its game. Three weeks ago, the security guard would sit in his little booth at the cemetery gate and watch YouTube until sun-up. Relatives had complained about the levels of vandalism and the mess the kids left behind, which prompted the guards into regular patrols. Logan had taken some time to get to know the security patrol schedule and routes. Few people came to this part of the cemetery at any time, and Logan had yet to see the patrolman anywhere near this section after eleven at night. During his scouting walks, he’d come across numerous empty beer cans a quarter mile to the east, gathered around a collection of large, flat stone tombs and ornate statutes in a wealthy family plot. An ideal spot for underage drinking. That’s the hot spot the guards focused on. Far away from Logan and his business in the cemetery.

He was a cautious man. He gathered data, planned, tested. He knew he could work undisturbed, but he took no chances.

The area was silent and dark, and Logan was all alone with the dead.