Corona Cozy Chat
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 1:43 pm
I wanted to linger, she wanted to walk, so we walked and lingered on the sidewalk of an old town. I did not notice when the old man appeared and that’s strange because no one else was on the sidewalk (corona), but it’s understandable because we were engaged in conversation about the architecture. When we drew closer to him I slowed and then paused for just a moment to look in a shop window.
Closer now, I saw that the old man was very old, in his nineties, maybe older. He was bent and walked with a cane and he moved very slowly. He looked at me and at that moment, she called to me from up ahead, for she had not stopped to linger. Something else to show me. I had no hat to tip and bowing was culturally inappropriate so I bowed only slightly and smiled at the old man and said, “Hello sir,” and realized by his reaction that he could very well be deaf.
I then walked no more than twenty steps at a normal pace to see what she wanted, but what she wanted is not important to this story because when I turned, the old man was gone, and this surprised me because at his rate I figured that he could have taken no more than five steps to my twenty, and there was nowhere within five steps of the shop window that would conceal him. The shop itself was closed, and the steps were too many and steep for the looks of his capacity. I looked farther, to doors and parked autos, but they were too far away for him to have reached.
He probably could have told us a lot about that old town, but standing six or more feet away and shouting would not have been appropriate, although that is necessary when we walk in the shadow of the corona. They tell us that any closer for speaking and I would have been projecting micro droplets of spit to be inhaled.
Since I’m not accustomed to shouting at a stranger on the sidewalk who may be deaf, or to shouting in general, since it’s quite likely that shouting may indeed spray a virus mist, and since I or anyone else may be an unsuspecting virus host, I just naturally took the do no harm approach to the situation without a second thought, although I do wonder how the old fellow disappeared so quickly.
- Walker
Closer now, I saw that the old man was very old, in his nineties, maybe older. He was bent and walked with a cane and he moved very slowly. He looked at me and at that moment, she called to me from up ahead, for she had not stopped to linger. Something else to show me. I had no hat to tip and bowing was culturally inappropriate so I bowed only slightly and smiled at the old man and said, “Hello sir,” and realized by his reaction that he could very well be deaf.
I then walked no more than twenty steps at a normal pace to see what she wanted, but what she wanted is not important to this story because when I turned, the old man was gone, and this surprised me because at his rate I figured that he could have taken no more than five steps to my twenty, and there was nowhere within five steps of the shop window that would conceal him. The shop itself was closed, and the steps were too many and steep for the looks of his capacity. I looked farther, to doors and parked autos, but they were too far away for him to have reached.
He probably could have told us a lot about that old town, but standing six or more feet away and shouting would not have been appropriate, although that is necessary when we walk in the shadow of the corona. They tell us that any closer for speaking and I would have been projecting micro droplets of spit to be inhaled.
Since I’m not accustomed to shouting at a stranger on the sidewalk who may be deaf, or to shouting in general, since it’s quite likely that shouting may indeed spray a virus mist, and since I or anyone else may be an unsuspecting virus host, I just naturally took the do no harm approach to the situation without a second thought, although I do wonder how the old fellow disappeared so quickly.
- Walker
