Christ. Would you look at that fucking clown rubbing his leisure in our face.  he stared straight ahead through the windshield over the steering wheel

What? What are you talking about?  his vision was obscuredthough he tried to see moving under his seat belt side to side

We’re coming up on him. I saw him ahead, down the road apiece. He’s the one backing us uppeople are too concerned with hitting him than running two abreastthere’s plenty of room on the road to pass him side by side, lousy drivers.

I’d assume they’re siding on caution. This is residential area, no one should be in a hurry.  he spoke into the side of the drivers face

he didnt turn to look at his passenger  I’m in no hurry, I just don’t like being held up by some guy taking his sweet time walking on the side of the road reading a book. I’m rolling your window down.

Why?

Watch. I’ll make this old man shit in his pants. the car slowly rolled forward as three vehicles passed in the opposite direction

Him?

Yeah him.

May be prematurely gray, but he’s no old man. And if he’s an old man I wish I was as fit.

No matter. He’ll shit. He’s too engrossed in his book. He hasn’t looked up out of it once the whole time we’ve been coming up on him.

Nownow, give him some room. I don’t want you hitting him playing your . .

. . Which is the trouble with everyone. Passing him one at a time. In either direction. There’s plenty of roomplenty of room. Watch this.

He’ll shit.

hed been walking and reading since he was a kid

the trouble with some was that they thought he was too engrossed and either honked their horn or screamed out their window as they went past  probably anticipating three or four balls were too many for him to juggleto negotiate 

he didnt have to lift his head to see forwardtake in what he was coming up on  he lifted his eyes  that was plenty  he was familiar with the sides of the road he walked it for years

BLAAARE!GET OFF THE ROAD OLD MAN!

nothing 

nada

nope

     like he was deafhe didnt flinch his spine didnt go herky-jerky he walked on steadfast stead forth 

it was an inside joke 

obviously the driver thought he was the first ever to pull off that horseshit  as if walking and reading killed his sense of hearingfeeling the atmosphere around him changelike a barometer  feeling presences

                                                                                           and somehow this driver honker screamer missed that there was only the street for cars and pedestrians  there were no sidewalks

this was an old neck of the woods  a neighborhood built nearly a hundred years ago 

the city didnt plan for sidewalks not any of itnot for any of the hundreds of homes that became or the thousands of residents

to be sure  not many walked on the road

when school was in session a few grade schoolers or junior high kids walked this way  though only a handful 

there werent kids in this neighborhoodnot like the neighborhoods he grew up in back east

these kids were shuttled or sat along or against the chainlink fences that surrounded the school grounds  they sat and waited  or they hung out in the Sunken Gardens before City Hall or traipsed over to the librarythe librarians inadvertent babysitters or went to Starbucks or another coffee house the donut shop the burger joint the Walgreens for candy     

very unlike his childhood

the school fences reminded him of concertina wire  students were incarcerated  not instructed  not educated  they were made fearful if they werent cloistered for their own safety

safety  the end game  the safe continuity of State and Federal funds coming into the district  student by student  dollar bill signs turning over their heads  if they werent in class the district was losing money  

helluva way to concede an education or educate someone

maybe he was square he didnt fit in the round peghole

if a peghole was large enough he might

but there was no room in the system to accommodate big pegholes

the easethe attributes of his walking and reading came from reading school assignments as he walked the mile and a half to and from school walking and reading the Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune as he pulled his wagon walked his morning paper route walking and reading paperbacks as he walked even furthur than school to hang out with friends

he was an antenna a radar rarely did anything slip into his field that he wasnt aware of

he was tried and true 

June, 2018

1153,  Friday,  28  9. 18