Simone Weil 52

Scapegoat and lamb. In the Manchester tram a teenager screams obscenities at an immigrant who is not one. There's a quiet woman behind the phone that records it. Everyone in the car remains quiet, except when a baby's involved. “No one in the park speaks English.” A friend in Florida said she didn't study Spanish because she thought people wanted their own language in the elevator. Reduction into stock answers; there's not much soup there, save what runs off a stone. “They're afraid,” they voted Remain. What remains of the day is a baby-faced thug and his ugly words. I cue up the short video from Puff N' Stuff, around the corner from Turnham Green's tube stop; there's Mrs. Sethe, and here's her address. Other shopkeepers were less friendly to Americans. It was autumn, 2002. At the corner florist shop, the tulips were so vivid they nearly sang.