The Orange Person

I almost called this "The Orange Lady," but the reality is that I'm not sure that the missing Orange Person was a lady. It could have been a man. Still, in my head, she's a lady, so I'll refer to her that way.

The Orange Lady is gone. I don't know what happened to her, but she has disappeared. She has been a visual treat for me for the last 7 years as I walked the route from the train stop at Broad and Spring Garden to work everyday. There, in the last cubicle, in the last window, of the last business before campus, sat the Orange Lady. Her desk was a visual caucophany of orange items: orange flags and banners, a stuffed Garfield, a stuffed Orange M&M, a stuffed Kenny doll from South Park, orange toy cars, pumpkins around Halloween, coffee mugs, orange pen and pencil sets (complete with the pen with the fluffy feather poof on the end), mouse pad, mouse, and even an orange cardigan neatly hung over the back of her chair. All of it glowed under the florescent sun of their little cubicle village - a bright spot amid a vast array of white and gray conformity. I always intended to take a photo of this tangerine dream, but never managed to turn my camera's eye that way. Suddenly, it was too late.

One day, it was gone. All of it. The orange Post-It notes, the Nemo doll, the Tigger Happy Meal Toy, the orange drawing made by someone's son or daughter, and the orange cardigan sweater neatly hung over the back of her chair...gone. Now, the easiest answer is that the Orange Lady was laid off or fired from her job. After all, in seven years of walking past that one desk, in the one cubicle, in the one window, of that one building, I never actually SAW the Orange Lady. She was never actually THERE. But, I prefer a happier ending...

The Orange Lady, on her way home from her orange cubicle one warm fall night, stopped at the corner store (the one with the orange sign of course) and spent $5 on a scratch off lottery ticket called "Orange You Feeling Lucky Today." To her surprise, she won the jackpot of $5 million Greenbacks (she wished that they were more of an apricot color, but who was she to change things like that)!

She immediately walked across the street and purchased a vintage 1955 tuck, mint condition and painted bright orange. She then drove down to the local mall and tried to recapture her youth by picking up a new pair of Chuck's (in orange, of course). Quite contented with herself, she went home to her little white house with the cantaloupe colored shutters and planned her next day.

She went into work at 9am the next morning and promptly quit. She packed up her orange cubicle, plunging the office into a permanent state of monochromatic monotony and walked out in her new Converse to her new truck parked at the curb. She drove to Florida (one of the orange capitals of North America) and soon opened a highly successful shop next to the Florida's Natural Brand Orange juice company called "Orange You Glad To Be In Florida" that sold only orange items.

She's still there today...still wearing her Chuck's and driving her truck...happy as can be. Her formerly orange desk still sits empty....maybe a Blue Boy will move in there sometime soon.