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I walk
down the street.
It's dark.
I'm in a hurry.
As I walk up to and begin to pass
a heavyset woman,
She says,
"I can walk to the Union faster than waiting ten minutes
for the bus."
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Things I realized at
that
moment:
1. The buses wait
in between runs at that spot on Wright Street. They sometimes sit there
for several minutes before starting again.
2. There was a bus waiting just behind us.
3. The woman, either because she was heavy or for some other reason, might have trouble walking the block
to the union-- she apparently preferred to take the bus, even for this short distance
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Other things which seem
relevant:
1. The woman's tone was complaining,but friendly.
2. There were other people on the sidewalk at this time in the evening, but none close by.
3. I wanted to say something friendly,but it took me a moment to respond,
because at first I was caught up in solving the puzzle of why she would
want to take the bus for a trip of less than a block. It surprised me.
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I tried to think of something
cheerful to say:
"At least it's a nice night for a walk," I said.
She said, "Yeah, better than sitting on that bus waiting."
"Yeah," I said, "I guess they have to wait between runs, but
it must be a pain for you."
I was in a hurry,
as I mentioned, so at this point I passed the woman, leaving a smile and a
nod behind me.
This story has
no point.
A week later,
with a friend,
I was walking down the same sidewalk at about the same time in the evening.
We passed this same woman, the one I had talked to the week before.
She said, "How are you tonight," looking at my friend, who answered,
"how are you?"
She was looking at my friend. She did not look at me.
I wondered if she remembered our conversation from the week before...but she
never looked at me.
I wondered if it mattered at this moment that my friend and the woman were
both black and I was white.
I didn't mention this to my friend and I didn't speak to the woman.
A few moments later, my friend said, talking about a literary theory course
she was enrolled in, "I just don't get this term, 'other' they're always
using... I mean, who is this other anyway?'"
I thought about this question as we walked down the street.
I'm thinking about it now.
My answer:
All of us.
I think.
But maybe this is the wrong answer.
Maybe it's the wrong story.
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