Old Folks

2002-09-05 - 2:51 a.m.

People Week, Part Three.

I promised this wouldn't happen, but hey, no one even -tried- to enter my contest. This reminds me of the Tree Challenge of '94, but that's another story.

Basically, all last week, people were affecting me. Either overtly, like the homeless woman or the stunned guy on rollerblades who turned a blind corner and looked surprised when there was a crowd of people, on the sidewalk, in his way, or covertly, like the aged couple.

It was after the gym, I was walking home.

In front of me was this old, old couple. The man was tall, bald, grey with what he had left, the woman was nearly half his size, her shoulders puffed and her head crouched in that old-lady way that you see every so often...as if she planned to be buried a rectangle.

They looked so tired, so weary. They held hands, and I wasn't sure if they were holding onto each other for love, or for habit, or out of desperation.

Who are they? I wondered. Why do they hold on to each other so tightly?

It wasn't until I was walking past them that I realised they were walking in step. Right-right foot, left-left foot.

I'm not sure, even now, if that comforts or frightens me.

Cheers,

The Magus

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