#48

An elderly woman made her way down the street using a cane in her right hand to steady herself. With her left hand, she pulled a wheeled canvas shopping bag behind her. Despite the cane, she moved at a fast pace and was nearly to the end of the block when she was forced stop. A car had half pulled in to a driveway, blocking the sidewalk.

“Excuse me!” The elderly woman shouted. She turned the stump of her neck in a slow half circle, her white hair like a dandelion puff awaiting a gust of wind. There was no one there to answer her. The owner of the car must have been inside somewhere.

“Excuse me!” She woman wailed again, knocking her cane against the car. “You are blocking the sidewalk and I need to get through!”

There was no response, so she continued thrashing the vehicle with her cane as if it were a creature that could be beaten into submission.

Eventually another neighbor came out to see what the noise was about.

“Can you just walk around the car?” The neighbor asked. “There’s plenty of room.”

The elderly woman paused and looked at the neighbor.

“Is this your car?” She asked.

“No, I’m not sure who it belongs to. But there’s plenty of room to go around the front.” The neighbor gestured toward the ample space on all sides of the small car.

The elderly woman narrowed her eyes and then spat in the direction of the neighbor.

“I’ve lived on this block for over eighty years and I’ll be damned if anyone is going to stop me from walking in a straight line.”

And with that, she went back to banging the car with her cane.