I Hadn't Anyone Till You - [Susan Grieve - Daisy Kenyon]

A Night at The Apollo Theater

I had been at the office the entire morning, and yet every time  I tried to write, it was almost impossible. I scribbled down some words that made little to no sense. Then I tried to use the typewriter, to force myself into writing something of more sustenance since I hated to waste precious ink. Alas that didn’t work either. So I went back to my longtime companion, paper and pen. And so back and forth I would go. With every effort I was unable to get past the first sentence, and it seemed now that those words written on the paper were doing nothing but laughing back at me and my inability to be creative whatsoever. Some would call what I was having writer's block, but I simply call it the path to a penniless plight. It didn’t make any sense for me to stay any longer in that room, so I decided to leave. As I traveled on the subway, I realized that my writer’s block was really getting worse and worse week by week. I huffed to that as my body moved by its own inertia as the carriage rattled and jounced.

I was annoyed and frustrated with myself that in a way, I felt I had to use all of my pent up energy on something else. Once I got home, I changed my clothes and started to clean, dusting away every ounce of dust, scrubbing every corner in the apartment, and polishing every item I have collected over the years like a madman. Doing this type of intensive cleaning, while not common, is always helpful in moments where I need to take my mind off things that make me feel tense and worried; not being able to write was one of the, if not the biggest, things that made me feel those exact feelings and so much more. 

But as it usually happens, I got carried away. When I least expected it, it was almost six in the afternoon, and I hadn't even had lunch. When the hunger was making itself present with the rumble of my stomach, I realized something even more important. I had completely forgotten that I and Daisy were scheduled to go to the movies at seven tonight.

I dropped what I was doing to take a bath and get ready. It was cold outside, so I decided to wear a long wool gray skirt, a white shirt, a wool coat that matched the skirt, a silk scarf to cover my neck from the cold, court shoes, gloves and a hat.

My tardiness delayed everything, so we hurried to the cinema to catch the screening. We went to the Apollo Theater and it was still quite busy even on a Wednesday night. Daisy was looking forward to watching The Snake Pit , starring Olivia de Havilland, so that was our choice.

As we waited in line, which was moving at a steady but slow pace, I finally noticed Daisy’s beautiful black coat, which had fur adorned on the v-shaped collar. I stared at it wondering if it was chinchilla or rabbit. It wasn’t until I sensed my neighbor’s eyes on me that I realized I had been staring for a bit too long. When my eyes met hers, she had a strange look on her face and when the seconds passed without anything to be said it dawned on me. While I knew I had been staring at her collar, it undoubtedly looked like I had been inappropriately staring at her chest for much too long. My face went red from the shame and awkwardness that I couldn't avoid. “I’m sorry, I loved the fur and I was trying to guess what kind of material it was” I couldn't stare back at her.

Daisy giggled charmingly.

─ “It’s chinchilla fur. It’s the warmest coat I have”

─ “It’s gorgeous.”

Soon the line started to move quicker than before, and in less than two minutes we were inside of the theater. We sat down in our respective places and as we got comfortable, my stomach started to rumble. I hadn’t eaten anything for so many hours that almost like an unconscious instinct, my hand landed on my stomach in an effort to calm the booming noise it was making.