Dinner

Normally I drive a couple hours for Uber when I get outta work. Tonight I could not.

I'm a waiter. These regulars who always ask for me came in tonight. Of all the people I serve, this couple is among the only ones I'm genuinely happy to see.

I'm also a great actor.

A lengthy conversation usually ensues right before they are going to leave. This time was no different in that regard. The subject matter was though.

I don't know what brought it on exactly but I ended up telling them I had studied to be a priest for 7 years and I think from there the woman asked me about before and after, during. I said some of the things I normally never say to anyone, including something brief about what happened to me in the seminary and how I had been divorced now for 6 years and single for 4.

After this, she just looked at me wide-eyed and I could see the words jumping out of her mouth one after another like wild elephants that just could not be tamed. She said:

"Wow. How could you then be able to even be in a relationship being so broken?"

And her face immediately after saying this contorted, horrified at what she said; and she stared at the space between us like she was looking at some sort of gruesome phantom she had herself birthed.

I stared back, tears in my eyes, and replied, "I know."

Good Morning

I was sitting outside my son’s school for a second, like I always do after I drop him off to dodge the traffic in the morning which is always a cluster. It was raining.

While clearing LinkedIn notifications a white Mitsubishi to my left began to pull out of its parking space fast enough to kill a kid. It hit a car instead.

She - maroon Toyota SUV - had been honking heavily before that distinctive noise I knew so well; and now she was frantic, outside her car in the rain.

He came up to assess things, went back to his car, wrote down some shit, gave it to her and left. Like a dick. Her eyes upon his leaving were the same as mine. I shifted to park.

She stood there in the rain, holding the paper. I got out.

I told her I saw the whole thing, she asked if she should call the police, I said “yes.” While we were waiting she said, in a thick accent that I couldn’t tell was Indian or Hispanic, that her husband was going to be so mad at her. I told her it wasn’t her fault. He was a doctor at the hospital, she was a homemaker she said and was taking her teaching certification tests. Her daughter was also in first grade, but not my son’s class. Underneath all that nervousness I could tell she was very kind. She kept thanking me for staying. Told her I had been through it many times before.

I gave the cop the information he needed to know and he said I could go. As I pulled out slowly, I turned to look at the woman one more time, but she wasn’t looking over, so I could tell her with my eyes it was gonna be ok.