City Life

She took her clothes out of the machine, put her jeans on and left the laundrette with her basket in her arms. It had grown dark. The sky was speckled with tiny bright stars although the lights of the city made it difficult to catch a glimpse of them. On the other hand the neon lights glimmered colourfully from the cafes, the closed stores, the cinemas and the restaurants. She walked over to a pedestrian crossing- anything else would be folly as the street was very crowded, here in the heart of the city.
She turned down a side street. It wasn’t very wide and the buildings towered 4-5 stories above her head.
This narrow street was quiet in comparison to the main street. Darker as well as there was no other lighting than the street lamps, occasionally a car with it’s headlights illuminating the footpath and parked cars. There was no one but her on the street. Bicycles were leaning against the walls helter-skelter- there were many more bicycles than there were bike racks. All sorts of bikes; gentlemen’s, ladies and children’s bikes plus a couple of weather beaten prams- left out in the open for wear and tear.
The buildings were in very good condition; newly painted facades; new windows and entry phones.
She was thinking that they were co-housing flats. They were probably owned by someone with no holes in their pockets; refurbished , maybe with a wood stove, good kitchen space and quite a few cosy rooms. The buildings were from the turn of the 20th century when a lot of people started to live under better conditions in the city. These flats weren’t meant for working families. They lived at the other end of the street where all the porn shops were situated.
She stopped outside an old shop with a large window facing the street. It was obviously a closed down business which may well have been a butchers, baker, dairy goods, fish shop; maybe even a tailor’s ;an independent bookstore or anything like it. These shops had to close down when production was centralised and supermarkets took over. Even the tailor had to close down because clothes were sown either abroad or at big clothes factories. They couldn’t compete with big business and industrial magnates.
There was a sign in the shop window. It advertised Tai Chi classes and there were some colourful drawings and a telephone number. She thought that the window decoration had given her a certain peaceful feeling. She continued down the dark street only to find that it forked out. She took the right fork and on one side of the street was a hotel. It looked very decent from the outside but her imagination took over and she could picture the customers going in and out. She couldn’t see anyone. She imagined that they were businessmen in suits and ties taking local prostitutes up to their hotel rooms. The neighbourhood was renowned for its porn shops and prostitutes. Men came from far away to buy sex. You could see the prostitutes selling themselves to guys in cars.
She turned the corner to the famous sex street. One sex boutique after the other , usually in the basement (there were restaurants on street level) with window exhibitions of sex toys, underwear and dildos. The girls were really dressed up; shiny boots, revealing blouses, wigs and lots of make-up. You wouldn’t recognise them when they weren’t on show. Really they looked as though they were living a rough life. She stood and stared down the steps to a porn shop; this was certainly a different way of life than what she was accustomed to. You had to grow up in the middle of it to be a part of it ,she thought.
She walked on to the shelter where the girls hung out. She knew she could get a hot meal and a cup of coffee or tea. The shelter was a very lively place till way over midnight. It didn’t shut down until 3 in the morning and most of the prostitutes and drug addicts were given a place to sleep and a clean place to fix.
The biting cold was very unpleasant. She was glad that the shelter was open.