The Sudden Wife

Life is filled with moments. Most just pass us by because we are too busy getting from here to there to notice. But sometimes they stick. Not long ago, I had just finished picking up my prescription from Rite Aid and was waiting for the light to change at the corner of Nieto and 2nd Street. Two young women were waiting with me. From the back, I thought they were mother and daughter. When the light changed and the three of us began to cross the street I saw that they weren't together, the young one walked immediately to the bus bench and plopped down. The older one, in her early thirties (?), was quite pregnant and seemed to match my pace step for step.

I had planned to walk a bit faster and pull ahead ahead but every time I did, pedestrians going the other way slowed me down. So, for several blocks I was resigned to walk right next to her.  At the next corner there is Sweet Jill's with those incredible, gooey cinnamon rolls. The smell of the rolls wafts out over the sidewalk and every fiber of my being wants me to change course and begin a feeding frenzy. Somehow, I, or we, managed to get past it without incident, but I turned to my new walking companion and said, "Oh my God, I SOOO wanted to go in there!"  

"Me too!" she said enthusiastically and smiled. "I LOVE that place!"  

I looked up and a man was approaching us, he caught my glance and was smiling at me. He raised his hand in hi-five fashion and said, "It is really nice to see you two smiling!" presuming, I believe, that she was my wife. I met his hand and he passed us by, I turned back to her and she was smiling sweetly.  At the next corner the foot traffic eased up a bit, I said in a husbandly way, "Well, honey, this is where I leave you behind."

"That's okay, I AM walking a bit slower these days."

And I left her behind.

Life is filled with suddenly surprising, suddenly tender moments. Most just pass us by because we are too busy getting from here to there to notice.

Tim Bulone is an ardent observer of life on the swirling blue marble. He works at Davis Group Consulting and creates fine art and canvas prints which he likes to sell from time to time at http://www.MyFamilyArt.com He is an early morning pedestrian in Belmont Shore, where he resides with his real wife and a variety of pets.