Thursday 6 October 2016

Cyclist Breaks A Mirror

           


            On Sunday, August 14th, I think I saw the Parkdale Amazon on a blue pastel vintage bike. She was wearing a black sundress with neon rainbow trim along the v-neck. She was waiting for the light to change so she could cross Queen Street from Dunn Avenue and I think she noticed my standing and watching her. The light changed but she didn’t cross. Instead she turned and rode the wrong way down Dunn.
            I rode to Danforth and Linnsmore and then north to Mortimer.
            On the way home, I was on Queen Street, approaching Shaw Street in the center lane when a young guy passed me on the right, but too close to one of the parked cars. His right handlebar clipped the mirror and knocked it out of its frame onto the street. I called out, “Jesus, guy!” He kept on driving, but slowed down and said, “Oh, I feel so bad!” Then he looked at me and said, “Sorry about that!” as if it were my mirror. “Don’t apologize to me!” I told him. He rode on. If I knocked a mirror out I’d at least go back to pick it up and put it on top of the car it belonged to.
            I watched an episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy and Ethel demand equal rights and so they agree to treat them like men. They were on their way out for dinner and the men began by not helping the women on with their coats or holding the door for them. At the restaurant they don’t pull out their chairs for them. In the end they pay for their own meals and leave Lucy and Ethel to pay for theirs. Since the girls don’t have money they have to wash dishes to pay for their meals.
         

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