Wednesday, March 8, 2006

A Desert(ed City Street) Mirage

In the absence of baby, a brief, only in New York story…

Last Saturday morning, as our driver cruised in the early morning light up 3rd Avenue, I saw an interesting sight. It was about six o’clock in the morning, so the only people on the street were those who have to work early on a weekend morning, and the typical undesirables. At a red light we stopped at, I watched as sanitation workers emptied the street trash cans into the back of their garbage truck. Two of the men at the truck were laughing and cheering on one of their comrades, who was racing across the street, trying to catch a fast-moving wiener dog.

At that moment, the light turned green, and as we drove closer to the chase, I watched with disgust as the man attempted to kick the little dog. He missed. A moment later my disgust turned to amusement, as I realized that it was not a dog he was kicking at, but rather a large sewer rat. As we drove past the man, I saw that he was smiling; his chest heaving from the sprint and the thrill of the chase. Were I a mind-reader, I’d surely have heard him thinking, “Almost got the little bastard!”

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