Ragged? Yes. He sat on the next bench down the sidewalk arguing
with himself for more than a half hour while I sat just taking
in the square and the weather.
Yes, it was maybe a fifty fifty chance which way he'd turn
when he got up. Coming my way it was suddenly a sure thing now,
engagement. Count down ...five, four, three, two, he paused and
looked at me. I felt like a furry creature looking up from the
bottom of a waste basket. He took a look at my bike.
"I used to have a bike," he started.
I almost said the sight of a bike can stir up good memories.
"I once kept my seat up high like you have there too," he said.
I was busy thinking that I had a dollar and a fiver in my
wallet. What will it be? I wondered.
"I lowered my seat," he said. "I guess I am a natural lowrider."
And that was all. He smiled and shambled off.
I was glad I didn't offer him my sympathetic tones or a one or
a five. For the moment he was doing fine. And who was I to steal
that from him?
