Clatter

Stepping out of my truck I carried a water bottle, a thermos, my sunglasses, the keys, my phone, and swung my legs out onto the pavement. At that moment, the sound of falling items: keys crashing, water bottle striking the floor, vibrations thundering off the parking garage ceiling. And for a moment my heart stopped—looking down, I had dropped nothing. I stepped forward, and saw a man crouching behind my truck, clutching at his things that had fallen onto the newly painted pavement. A relief, then, that clumsiness comes to others and not only myself. 

On Patience

All around me the sound of ticking clocks. An alarm set, a goal established, a timeline created. In this constant time-awareness a pressure builds within me. It’s in this way I am always impatient. I’d resolve to remove myself from this time crunch, but I wouldn’t know where to begin.

A Search

The office building stood along a busy road in the valley that I used to take to get to my last job. On the first floor was a bank; I entered its lobby thinking it was for the building itself. Already late for my appointment, I hurried down the block to the front entrance. The two doors stood locked. 

I turned back, and went around the front side of the building, but I only saw the parking garage. I couldn’t park there since I never carried cash. Returning to the front door, I pulled out my phone to call the receptionist. One ring, two, then sent to voicemail. It was after hours; but, how did I get the appointment? Through the front door I could see across the lobby to a pair of doors at the rear of the building. This time I circled around the other way, and found myself at the correct door. This one, too, was locked, but I saw a security guard behind a front desk. He let me in. I told him the name of the office, and he thought for a second before recalling the floor and suite number for me. I would learn later his name was Ali.

Walking into the waiting room, I realized that the doctor was still in session with the patient before me. I considered myself lucky, and knocked on wood that the anxiety of my assumed lateness was misplaced.