Encounters

By Zannier Alejandra

He comes in every Wednesday afternoon and sits in front of the counter for about an hour. He’s an artist. I can tell by the way his dark eyes take in everything around him, including me. I wonder, has he memorised every line of my face, every freckle of my skin as I have of his?

He leaves his sketchbook behind one day. I can’t resist, I wait for him to leave and seize it; but, inside, I don’t find a masterful portrait of myself, just a bundle of incomplete Tuesday crossword puzzles. He was not an artist after all.

          
Alejandra is a Bolivian writer with an MA in creative writing from City University. In a past life she was a banker, but now spends most of her time writing, watching TV, analysing TV and talking about TV – occasionally, she even gets paid for these things.