Modern Topics in Circuitry

A story about standing at a crosswalk.

I got to the crosswalk just as the light changed, so I had to stop and wait. Usually, I’ll try to cross even when the light isn’t with me, just wait for a break in traffic and go, but there was no hope of doing that here. The road was five lanes across and it was always backed up this time of day. Cars just kept coming from both directions. I knew it would be like this. I should have gone out earlier, but I hadn’t. So now I had to wait. I had my army green raincoat on. I bought it cheap from a veteran on Craigslist last year. He said he’d done two tours in Afghanistan. He would’ve done a third, but he was given a medical discharge. He sounded embarrassed about it. He insisted on showing me a photo of his regiment that he carried around in his wallet. He pointed out two in the back row that had been killed in action. They looked the same as all the others to me. He said he was moving to Arizona, so he wouldn’t need a raincoat anymore. I was pretty sure it still rained in Arizona sometimes, but I didn’t say anything. Maybe he knew something I didn’t. In any case, it wasn’t raining just now, but it had been drizzling on and off all day, and everything was cold and damp. It had made the asphalt extra-dark. The sky was slate gray.

There was a guy standing next to me at the crosswalk. He was wearing a raincoat, too. He was younger than me. His hands were in his pockets. He took one hand out of one pocket and looked at his watch. Then he glanced behind him. He looked at his watch again. He put his hand back in his pocket. He glanced behind him again. I admit I was watching him. Until the light changed, I didn’t have anything else to do. I made sure to be discrete about it. You never know about people you meet on the side of a road. In any case, he didn’t seem to notice. Or, if he did notice, he didn’t seem to care. He glanced behind him again. He always glanced over his right shoulder. I was standing on the other side, meaning that when he glanced behind him he turned away from me, and I couldn’t clearly see his face. When he faced front, though, I could see he had an ordinary face. The kind of face you wouldn’t mind seeing, but wouldn’t look twice at, unless it belonged to someone you had a reason to feel strongly about. He closed his eyes. I saw his lips move, but I couldn’t hear anything. He opened his eyes. He glanced behind him again. This time, I couldn’t help myself. I looked as well. Like I had thought, there was nothing much to see. The sidewalk, following the street that met with the main road and formed the intersection here, quickly curved away and disappeared behind a grassy rise. There were some houses, and beyond them a patch of undeveloped land with some trees and bushes on it. Some of the trees were pretty tall. That was it. I had no idea what the guy was looking for.

The light was still green. Cars kept streaming past. A kid in the passenger seat of a sedan pointed his phone at me. It looked like he was recording a video. That sort of thing has been happening more lately. Maybe there’s someone I need to call. The guy glanced behind him again. He shifted his weight. It was a very long light. I had known this about this light. I had known it would be a problem. It had been a problem for me before. But I had still waited until now to go out. I’d had plenty of time earlier, when conditions would have been more advantageous, but I hadn’t taken that advantage. So now I just had to stand and wait. I’d have to do it again on the way back. At this rate, it would probably be getting dark before I got home. Especially on an overcast day like this. I had no one but myself to blame. The guy glanced behind him again. He checked his watch. He glanced behind him. Finally, the light changed. I waited to make sure all the cars stopped. Then I crossed. The guy crossed, too. We walked almost in sync. If either of us had wanted to, we could have easily caused a collision. When we got to the other side, I kept walking, but he didn’t. I only glanced back once. He was standing at the crosswalk. The light had already changed, and he seemed to be waiting to go back to the other side. He was looking straight ahead. I decided I would take a different route on the way back. It was less direct, and by the time I got home, carrying my daily bread, night had long since fallen, and it had begun to rain in earnest.