Unexpected company

It's been a beautiful day, and I decided to eat my super outside. I took my book and was relaxing on the patio, when suddenly a bicycle flies into the yard, screeching to a stop beside me.  A woman leaned over the handlebars desperately panting for breath.  She heavily built, sported visible tattoos, in a couple of areas, and was wearing shorts and a tank top that barely held in her breasts.  She had a bright pink fleece item wrapped around one wrist, and was hanging onto the straps of four matching pink seat cushions, while trying to control a huge back pack and a water bottle.  I asked if she was alright, and she nodded yes, not yet capable of speech.  Slowly she gained her breath and put down the bike stand, and more or less fell into the chair beside me.  I asked her what happened and was she okay, and she answered in a bare whisper.  There was no way I could understand much of whatever it was she was saying, but I did get that she was on her way to work.  ( Odd outfit to be wearing to work!) Finally I asked if she need a phone, and she said yes.  So David brought out the phone, and she made several calls, but couldn't seem to get hold of anyone who could come and get her. I considered offering her a ride, but I was too suspicious to actually do it, especially when I couldn't get a clear story out of her. Then she started going through her back pack which was absolutely packed with clothes and other personal belongings.  Not something I would take to work.  She was fussing with it and I asked if it was broken.  Yes.  Did I have a plastic grocery bag she could put her stuff in?  So David brought her a green garbage bag, and she stuffed the thing around her wrist and the four cushions into it, then fussed some more with the straps of her back pack.  They sure didn't look broken to me.  So she put the shoulder strap of the backpack over the handle bars of the bike, and stuffed the water bottle in it and the managed to pick up the garbage bag before pedaling off.

I had several thoughts.  The thing around her wrist was a brand new fleece throw.  I saw the label when she took it off.  I half wondered if she was homeless, and might have the cushions and throw to sleep with tonight.  Then, when David and I talked, just after she left, we both wondered if she might have stolen the throw and cushions from the Giant Tiger store in the mall across the street.  They often have displays on the sidewalk outside the store, and it would have been quite easy for someone on a bike to have grabbed something and taken off. I guess we'll never know.