Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?
Today I came uncomfortably close to being hit very hard by a rather large green van. I was walking along a narrow pavement in a road that’s only marginally busy as it’s a small town. There was a huge hedge that took up about half the width of the pavement so I ended up walking right on the edge. A bus came down towards me and I could feel myself tensing up – you know instinctively that a crowded road is not good for pedestrians walking on the edge!
It’s a long straight road, though, and you think “surely anything coming up behind will see me (and the bus) from miles away…”
And whoosh! Your hair is lifted by the strength of the air current as a large van bursts past you at high speed, only a couple of inches away. I’m hard of hearing so I didn’t even hear it coming till it was right there at my side.
I told Mum about it when I reached her house, my eyes alight with anger. “It whooshed past me just like that”, I said – “just there!”
“You should be careful,” said Mum. “That’s how R was killed.” (R was Mum’s second cousin).
I’m usually VERY careful – inclined to cross the road reluctantly, and tuck myself well in by the wall unless foiled by other people and overgrown hedges. I’m obviously not careful enough it seems – too trusting. Tomorrow I will walk on the other side of the road – the side the bus was on! At least it was going at a sedate pace and it was coming down towards me, not belting up out of nowhere from behind.
Goodnight everyone, and take care!
Living in Scotland, UK; I work from home as an editor and pet-minder. I was born profoundly deaf and am no stranger to agoraphobia. I began renting out my house and have moved upstairs at my mother’s place. I used to have an Oriental Ticked Tabby (
