shattered dreams.

I was with a client a few days ago who's all over the place. She claims to only have bi polar disorder, but I think there's a few more screws loose that she likes to downplay. Well that's not really fair to say because she's been through a pretty intensive domestic violence situation that she's still trying to move on from. But she's the type of person where EVERY crazy thing happens to her (which usually ends up being exaggerated in my experiences, because really, what are the chances?) She was telling me about a story where this morning people tried to kidnap her.
My first initial reaction was one of horror, but then she proceeded to tell her story and it turns out she noticed a car that may have been following her and may have stopped abruptly a block away, and then drove away. Not to make light of this situation, but she's someone hard to kidnap. Let's just say, she's a bigggg girl. A package that would take at least 2 trips, naw i mean?

I then drove her to a used car dealership where she wanted to shop around and I was greeted with a hilariously stereotypical car dealership with men with couch like suits, short sleeve dress shirts and creepy smiles. The salesman that helped my client out was a fairly young looking dude. He was college aged, but could he have still been in school? Maybe dropped out? Many questions ran through my head as my empathy simmered for this young chap who couldn't have been a year older than me. What were his dreams? How long has he been here?

My client has some sass, so she was asking questions anybody not wanting to get fucked over asked. I could tell the salesman was getting nervous and eventually looked defeated. As my client chuckled, "I've been burned before! No way someone's gonna screw me again!" The salesman, fittingly replied "Trust me I wanna sell you a car way more than you wanna buy one."

As this defeated young man went to another room to crunch some imaginary figures determined by "in house credit bureaus" that will determine how much bullshit money she has to put down for a bullshit, tore up car, another man came into this room looking for a stapler. For a second I should describe this room: yellow paint, chips and scuff marks everywhere, and a window is covered up by one of those science fair boards...not the display side, but the ass of it where its cardboard and letters. Anywho, this guy comes in and he is fairly young as well, but reeks of douchebaggery. He's got that "I'm going to get pussy tonight" stripey shirts and stinks of cheap cologne. To top this image off with a cherry on this asshole sundae, he had the BIGGEST black eye I've seen in a long time. From just looks alone, I can safely assume that he deserved it.

Needless to say, the client didn't get a car and was frustrated by all the ordeals of that day. Watching her struggle with all the cartalk jargon and her supposed run-in with kidnappers, I couldn't help but notice the stark differences between our worlds. I don't have to struggle with these predators she faces on a fairly constant basis. Student loans, car loans, shady guys etc.

Maybe she isn't paranoid afterall. Maybe I'm the one who's naive.