Gripping stranger #2: Seagull Lady

Every morning at approximately 7:33 a.m., the seagulls in my neighbourhood start flying in wild circles by my apartment behind Delany's coffee shop on Denman Street. The gulls cry out to each other and shriek excitedly in bird-language, and the crowds grow thicker as they watch you approach through the alley down from Lord Roberts Annex elementary school. You're wearing a white cap and carrying a bright yellow plastic bag from the discount grocery store in Denman Place Mall. The seagulls swoop lower, braver ones positioning themselves aggressively along the ledge of a nearby outdoor apartment parkade. You walk calmly amidst the excitement towards the empty one-car parking spot behind the coffee shop that will be filled in half an hour by Robin Delany or someone else like him. You empty the contents of the yellow bag and the birds go wild, crowding the driveway with their quarterback bodies and surrounding you with noise. Once you offered what was in the bag to a truck driver who'd parked in the alley across from the gulls, coming back to him after you'd finished with the birds. A generous woman, my boyfriend said as we watched from the window in our pajamas.