On the way to Saks I thought about Sally Snow and wondered what she looked like and who she could be?

I was about to knock on Sally Snow’s door, which I knew was slightly crazy, when the door opened and a Siamese cat came slithering out. “Come here, Topaz,” I heard a woman say.

FLOWERS IN THE HALLWAY BY ELLEN BLOOMENSTEIN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 79

I went across town to get a key made. The only place that made keys for my lock was across town and I needed a spare to give to my doorman. I had the lock changed the day before, when I moved in.

I took the bus. On the way this woman, skinny and about 30 or so, was gabbing on her phone to just about as many people as she could. Soon as she finished one call she went right to the next.

I walked up to the hardware store on 89th Street and got the spare key made. I was freezing cold. The air was as crisp as if it would crunch if you bit into it. The afternoon was shaping up with a few clouds like overstuffed snow-bunnies. I quick-grabbed a cab back to my apartment.

I gave the doorman the spare key and went up to my floor. In front of my nei…