Just Yesterday

For once, not finding the there there.

So yesterday was my birthday. The afternoon was dank. I stood at the side of our street letting Charlie sniff something while talking to Sam about my birthday dinner- takeout sushi. I heard a car behind me followed by a male voice calling out, in the bright, familiar tone of a dear friend, hey, hello! to which I responded, reflexively, hello!, my tone even brighter and more familiar, only to stare into the face of a total stranger. Red Mazda, the window rolled down on this 30-degree day, and I have no idea who the fuck he is. He’s grinning, or leering? and I’m thanking god Sam is on the phone because this is weird. Then, the guy takes off, calling cheerfully through the open window to have a nice day.

Me being me, I am freaked out. If asked, I could not pick this person out of a line-up. Youngish, in his thirties, shaved head, big teeth. Either a pervert or serial killer.  

But then, hold on! It’s my birthday, sure, but the universe is random, not cruelly ironic. No eye is on this sparrow. I’m just a lady with a dog talking to her husband about sushi when someone I don’t know greets me like an old friend. Why leap to birthday Ted Bundy before the more likely mistaken identity or crummy vision? What if the whole thing was nothing?

My gift to myself was the perfectly innocuous reframing of a thing that happened on the day that happened to be the anniversary of my birth. Also, the sushi was delicious.