Winnie Good

Just out looking for a little fun in Santa Cruz - A THREE-MINUTE FICTION

Santa Cruz, California

Take a three-minute stroll with Winnie to see what she discovers in downtown Santa Cruz…

---

Winnie Good is 86 years old and looking for a little fun. She is having trouble remembering exactly what fun is, but today she is on the move. Standing at the corner of Pacific and Walnut in her fuzzy pink hat, she looks right and left, watching for possibilities. A sign across the street says ‘PETS’. “That sounds like fun,” she says to a man passing by. He looks up from his phone for a second, smiles and keeps walking. 

Stepping off the curb, she hobbles into the street. An impatient motor scooter beeps. She says, “Hi!” and waves. The window of the pet shop is full of black and white puppies; she watches them play for a while.  “This is fun,” she says to a woman who is coming out the door. The woman looks up from her phone, nods and goes on her way.

Winnie Good has always tried to live up to her name, ever since she was a child, but this afternoon is different. She doesn’t hear her father’s voice saying, “Now, be a Good girl, Winnie!” She doesn’t care about being a Good girl today.

In the next shop window is a bright display of socks – socks of so many colors and patterns!  She goes in and sorts through them for a long time and finally chooses the ones with yellow stripes. She has no money in her pocket to give to the girl at the counter, who rolls her eyes and sighs and takes the socks back to the rack.

In another window are sparkling prisms and small colored bits of glass hanging on threads from the ceiling . She watches them spin and twinkle in the sunlight. Then she peeks into a place that smells like coffee and young people. She counts all the sugared pastries in the window.

Walking on, she stops in front of a movie theater and looks at the posters in the vitrines. “I used to go to movies,” she says to a couple buying tickets. They look up. “My favorite movie was called ‘Lili’ and it was about a girl in France and there were Ferris wheels and balloons and puppets,” she says, though no one pays any attention to her. “A song of love is a sad song, hi - lili -hi- lili - hi - lo,” she sings.  She’d never gone to France herself, though she'd wanted to.  She wanted to sing hi-lili and dance in the streets like in the movie.

She starts off again down the street, passing a tavern that reeks of whisky and stale beer. Then a shoe store, a used book market, a bicycle repair shop. She sits on a bench in the park and kicks off her shoes. She watches people going by, speaks to a few of them, but no one seems to hear her or see her.  “I must be invisible now,” she says.

Suddenly someone shouts,“Miss Good?” A man and woman, both out of breath are running toward her. “Oh, Winnie!  Oh! I am so glad we found you, dear. We have been looking all over town for you. Are you okay?” Winnie steps into her shoes and stands up slowly, a little wobbly. They take her by both arms.

“Yes,” she says. “I am very fine, thank you. You can take me back now. I think I’ve had all the fun I can stand for one day.”