The Noise on Monday

There was a commotion outside this evening, down in the back alley below my apartment roof deck. I had been playing a scrabble game with the computer robot, Lex, when I became aware of incessant yelling outside the building. I went out to the back alley and saw a huge moving truck with mattresses tied to the top, and the street full of an enormous family. They were playing football in the middle of the street and the ball bounced on the roof of the car parked in front of mine. "Come on come on" it sounded like the large men were saying, but it was not english so I can't be sure. There were three young girls, a slew of young boys, and four or five grown men shouting at the top of their lungs. I had decided to move my car to the other side of the street since tomorrow was street cleaning and I had to move it anyway. But I was afraid to step into their fray...they seemed indifferent to any other people on the planet and were charging around the cars slinging this pigskin football. "Hey I am COMING THROUGH! DON'T HIT ME!" I yelled, but not a one of them even glanced at me. It's that way anymore, since I got old and wretched looking. I was once rather beautiful if you don't count all the years I was fat, actually I was very pretty and no one ignored me when I spoke. Now however, I am old and thin and I don't care what I look like I don't even dye my hair anymore, because I have become invisible. So when I went down to the football game going on just off Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn on a Monday evening, I was not surprised that they did not turn to see who was speaking, nor did they stop throwing the ball as I shot out into the street and unlocked my car. I thought, if they hit me on the head I might die, a person can die from being hit with a football. But what then? Would they stop their game and come over to view the body? Or would they just keep playing, me being invisible and all? The point was not my invisibility, but the family. There were so many of them and they were having such a good time. I moved my car to the other side, and watched them play for a while. It ended when the little girl ran backwards all the way down the block and caught the ball. The men collapsed into cheers and hand slaps and hugging. The moving van drove away. I went back in to my little room and sat down at my computer and continued playing scrabble with Lex the Robot.