4.27 The 18


27 April 2020. The 18

I don't now why this should be so exciting--clearly a result of my long apprenticeship as a bus rider--to no avail, I'm afraid. Or rather, not right now. It seemed to be working so perfectly--a ride from Solano to downtown, over to the Y for a swim, and then the ride back, drawing both ways--the chance encounters, renewed acquaintanceships. By implication, of course--having drawn the same riders sometimes more than once. So that when I see the woman with the square-box pull cart, fine features set in a leathery face, with one shock of blond-gray hair poking up from the side of her cap--it's as if I've met an old friend, but now she's trudging up an empty Solano in the dusk. Her home perhaps more than I realized.


As when last night, C read me a new paragraph from Isak Dinesen--a parable of sorts. Christ returned to earth, in a noisy gathering with his disciples--he turns to Peter and suggests they step outside, maybe a walk. But to where, Peter asks.We'll start at the Praetorium, then up that hill to Cavalry...
_____

Only here it's the frozen yogurt shop, now barely re-opened. Still only a very few people--they wait outside while the father steps up to the doorway to order, sitting later as a family, masks pulled down for the moment, lost in the contemplation of each spoonful...

Would this be a variety of religious experience? English spiritualists on the bluffs of the Pacific...?
Or simply an evening in Albany, in late April, heightened by the empty street...