Personal Space

The weather was threatening to rain as I stood at a corner of the intersection waiting for the light to change. An older woman paused her loud vocal advertisements for a local studio apartment to hand me a free sample.

Normally I don’t accept handouts but hey, it’s a new town.

She stepped in close to hand it to me. I took it from her extended reach and then asked what in fact she had given me.

“Wet tissues,” she said, not moving out my space.

She continued to look at me from her vantage point of 8 inches away until I awkwardly said “uh, thank you”.

She turned to face the traffic but didn’t move away. Thus we stood side-by-side like two old friends until the crosswalk signaled green and our destinies once again diverged.