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David and Goliath
Feb. 3rd, 2010 01:54 pmI think I had my first real Boston experience at the end of last week.
Our apartment building is near an unlikely three-and-a-half way junction, with two pedestrian crossings, one on each side of a turning that leads off the main road. Coming back from the T station in the evening, I had just started on my way over the nearest of these when one of those giant American vehicles that are only slightly smaller than the average bus hurtled around the corner. He came to a stop as he finally saw me, the nose of the vehicle poking just above the middle of the crossing, and gave a blast of his horn. Normally the reaction to that if you want to survive a fight with something that size is just to run away, but I'd had a long day. Instead, I responded in kind - I stopped, threw my arms out to the sides and answered with a shouted "WHAT?!"
It was too dark to see the face of whoever was inside the giant armored vehicle, but as I stepped aside pointing meaningfully down at the markings in the road, I would like to think that as the behemoth slinked away more slowly than it had come it had an air that approached sheepishness. As I continued the rest of the way across, a man who was crossing in the opposite direction turned away from his phone call for a second to smile and commiserate with a shake of the head and the words "What an asshole." It was the first time I felt I've really belonged here.
Our apartment building is near an unlikely three-and-a-half way junction, with two pedestrian crossings, one on each side of a turning that leads off the main road. Coming back from the T station in the evening, I had just started on my way over the nearest of these when one of those giant American vehicles that are only slightly smaller than the average bus hurtled around the corner. He came to a stop as he finally saw me, the nose of the vehicle poking just above the middle of the crossing, and gave a blast of his horn. Normally the reaction to that if you want to survive a fight with something that size is just to run away, but I'd had a long day. Instead, I responded in kind - I stopped, threw my arms out to the sides and answered with a shouted "WHAT?!"
It was too dark to see the face of whoever was inside the giant armored vehicle, but as I stepped aside pointing meaningfully down at the markings in the road, I would like to think that as the behemoth slinked away more slowly than it had come it had an air that approached sheepishness. As I continued the rest of the way across, a man who was crossing in the opposite direction turned away from his phone call for a second to smile and commiserate with a shake of the head and the words "What an asshole." It was the first time I felt I've really belonged here.
