Fifty-plus early birds gather outside the DMV. Each of us needs a Real ID. “Really!?!?!” exclaims a newcomer dressed in business attire. “Reality is ultimately fictionalized,” a woman beneath a hand-knit bonnet responds. I pull a banana from my pocket, and the security guard slips out of character. “A buck for that?” he offers while telling others to step back. “$1.50,” I banter; he accepts. As the rain falls harder, I gift him the fruit, its peel fully intact. “Make this line move faster?” I pester as he snacks. “Get real, woman,” he counters. “That’s above my vitamin level.”
Jen Schneider is a community college educator who lives, works, and writes in small spaces in and around Philadelphia.