Kimberly
Kimberly was sitting on the sidewalk of Wilshire where LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits meet. She was quietly writing in a notebook when I approached her, and in her lilting southern accent she asked for: "Just something to eat, thank you."
She liked to pose for my pictures, and admire them afterwards. Conversation with her was a heartbreaking mix of demure joy for random,
beautiful things, and a black stain of abuse and the intimate knowledge that this world is often a terrible place.
“ I’m from Lake Charles, Louisiana. [I've been in LA] since October of 2013. You know what I think I like about it? The climate. And I love the zoo. I think I like the apes the best.
Why be scared?
I was scared of the male ones for some reason.
I don’t know if they like candy or not, like sweet tarts and tic tacs and things. And pretty lipstick.
Sometimes lipstick is sweet. ”
“ I’m kinda sick from lupus so sometimes my words don’t come out right. I got that in 1989 after about 3 months of taking this medicine. I really should have never taken it.
It was called [Nor-o-noll].
I was taking it ‘cause I wish my mom loved me more than she did. She really was careless with me. Very careless.
Just didn’t care about me.
You know how sometimes people don’t know how to care?
She just didn’t care about me for any reason at all. ”
“ Then we are all lead to believe that Jesus Christ was hung and crucified on a cross. I think somebody else stood in his place. ‘Cause you can’t stand, you have to be helped up.
I think he kept hiding and hiding and hiding, and probably missed his nice mother, and could never get back home.
He probably had pets. Friendly, friendly pets, and never got to go back home. He could’ve died. Could still be alive.
If Jesus is still alive, then I’m still alive.
I love these Converse shoes. ”
“ [The cops] embarrass me. Bad. Real, real bad. ‘Cause of what my family did to me. Only family I know. But they keep me alive for their purpose -
the cops. That’s what they do. It’s so scary.
I’m not one of them. I’m the exception.
Untouchable. You’ve heard of the untouchables. ”
“Have you ever heard that song... called ‘In The Dark’ by Billy Squier? Now I‘m bashful to dance with clothes on, but will dance for you
with clothes off. ”
“ ‘Kimberly do you wanna suck one of these?’
I like you. And I don’t share my boys.
Men are boys, and boys are men. ”
“ I think I do like [Miracle Mile] ‘cause it’s so spacy. Like that song ‘Wide Open Spaces.’ I like that song... That’s a pretty song. It makes me have peace of mind. I just like that man in a black costume.
‘Wide open, wide open spaces…’
He needs some pretty roses to hold. I would hate to give up life over all the pretty little things I can sew by hand. All kinds of things. Even a white bow has flowers on it. ”
“ Oh, it’s all so hurtful, what’s been done to me in the past. Thank goodness for being able to remember. That’s for sure... I persist.
I remember this woman with these blue eyes,
the most beaufiul blue eyes... She persists...
Sometimes we forget things that are hurtful to us when you can’t get out of it. ”
I asked her: “ But it’s best to remember? ”
“ Definitely. ”
