The landscape of waiting

That day I became obsessed with windows. Poor me… if anyone has a mind more tormented than mine, raise your hand.

And look at what I end up doing!... Letting myself be overtaken by the green. 😛

It wasn’t really those little squares they held in their hands that interested me, but the ones above…

I told you already—I got obsessed with it, and it wasn’t enough that the rhythm was thrown off by the absence of a window-mounted air conditioner.

Cover created in Canva.

Alright, I’ll tell you what I was doing there.

I’d been hired to deliver a dress to a stranger who, once I arrived, told me to wait—she wanted to try it on.

The folded piece of paper the seller gave me even had the client’s phone number written wrong. I ended up calling someone else, who answered, confused: “What dress? I don’t wear dresses…” My mind went blank—well, not totally… hmm… I stopped wearing dresses too, the day after I almost couldn’t escape a rapist because of one, I thought…

I looked into the distance, realised I had the camera in my other hand, and pointed it at the building split in two by that lamp post… it’s the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital in Centro Habana. I was sitting in a small park across from the design school—known here as ISDI—breathing in the lightness of the morning before the city began to weigh. The delivery was scheduled for 10 a.m., and I was barely six or seven blocks away, an hour and a half early.

There were some men there mowing the grass and dragging boxes filled with the cuttings toward some spot where they stacked them—I suppose to collect them later.

He was one of them—the ones working there—visited by this dog and a woman who clearly cared for him deeply… to him… and well, yes, to the dog too.

“Take a photo of me,” this man said, though he didn’t know how to pose. So I smiled, just to help him loosen up a little.

Shortly after, another man showed up walking his dog. I think he lives on the other side of the avenue and brings the dog to the park either to do its business or just to let it unwind a bit… he didn’t seem to have much time, really—he headed back the same way he came, rather quickly.

Let’s not drag this out… it’s the #Monomad Challenge.

You probably didn’t even read this and just scrolled through the photos—which is perfectly fine by me. And I appreciate it… time is a precious asset. It gets spent and doesn’t come back.

Once the little issue with the wrong number was cleared up with the dress seller, this is the part where I got there and saw the woman who was supposed to buy the dress.

“Wait here,” she said. “I’m going to try it on.”

And I reacted: Wait, this is part of the deal? Because I didn’t come all this way for you to try it on. I came for you to pay for it, and for my part in bringing it.

She looked at me, indifferent, and said: Fine… but if it doesn’t fit me, the only thing I’m giving you is the 800 CUP I agreed on with the seller for bringing it.

It wasn’t enough for me… Two dollars to bike over 20 kilometres.
I was starting to lose motivation. 😂