september 5th, 2008 (evening) - earning my wings
my wife is a very generous person, we decided to go take our dog (dante) for an evening walk around the block. after walking for ten or so minutes, and cars stopping to honk or whistle at my wife as they drove past, we came across a dirty woman in a wheel chair with one leg. we walk by her with dante and she says something to us while flicking the end butt of a lit cigarette on the ground. neither me or nor wife understand what she had mumbled because of the loud motors of the vehicles passing by.
we keep on walking our route around the block, a fatiguing walk, long enough to exhaust us both out and dante, so he'd be less of an alarm clock in the morning, waking us up with his yelping cries.
on our way back home we come across the dirty woman in the wheel chair again, she is struggling uphill to where we are... a not very deep hill... more a slant, but she see us ahead of her walking towards her. as we get closer my wife and i both grow silent and hold the dog closer to our side so dante would not lunge at her.
"excuse me," she says sounding out of breath,
"could you two help push me to the corner store?"
my first instinct was to hurry up and think of some kind of excuse...
we have an appointment we need to get to.
we have dinner in the oven.
we have an important phone call to answer.
we think we left the coffee maker on, the house might burn down.
then my wife responds in a charitable tone,
"sure," she says,
as i look at my wife standing there holding dante by the blue leash.
so, i walk behind the dirty woman in the wheel chair and grab the black rubber handles and begin to push. we go down sidewalks and over rocks on the ground, at times i felt like she'd easily tip right over or fall out. i tried to be careful while pushing her, but i also wanted to just get the fuck out of this situation, so i pushed her a little faster.
soon, we arrived at a street crosswalk, right across from the store she was heading to, i could hear her mumble something, but i payed her no attention and looked at my wife holding the dog with the blue leash. she smiles at me like i'm some kind of peeved off saint. i think about how i got into this situation and look back over at my wife.
that's when i hear the dirty woman in the wheel chair speak more coherently saying, "i told you to go on the red light, the crosswalk sign doesn't work right, you should have listened to me," in a very cross tone. at that moment i wanted to just leave her there to get across the busy intersection by herself, or just push her out on the green light not caring if a car was coming, but i came to my good sense and just waited for the green light to turn red and continued pushing the dirty woman in the wheel chair across the street.
after we got across the street she started telling me about how hard the wheel chair access was around this area, how she sees my wife always walking the dog around the neighborhood, and how she just got her food stamp card.
"let me buy you a drink inside," she insisted.
"that's okay, but thank you," we both responded back to her.
"but i want to buy you a drink, i'm that kind of person." she said in a crying tone, as if our not wanting her to buy us a drink meant we did something wrong that hurt her feelings.
"that's okay, but thank you," we spoke again... as we let the conversation grow silent.
i was also afraid if we did accept a drink on her food stamp card, that we'd have to end up pushing her back to wherever she started out on her destination. i pushed her up the store sidewalk and to the glass door, she was kinder once there saying, "that's a nice dog, what's his name?" my wife responded, "dante." she misheard and said, "dantel?" "dante," my wife said again, as the woman in the wheel chair poked a finger at our dog's nose and let him lick it.
i opened the store door and she begin rolling in, i saw that she was still struggling through the door, so i gave the wheel chair one last hard push, and pushed it over the bump in the doorway. once she was inside the store and the door closed behind her, we began to walk away, looking at each other bewilderingly.
we began to walk back home, having done a good deed that i never agreed to do, that my beautiful wife agreed to do. she then turns to me and says, "i'm sorry, i should have pushed her, i'm the one who agreed to help her," and for once i completely agree with her.
my wife is a very compassionate person, and i forgive her for trying to help me earn my wings. i probably would have helped the dirty woman in the wheel chair regardless if my wife was there or not to agree to the situation. i'm soft too, she knows that, and i love her for being the kind hearted person she is.
anyways, the next day at work, i call my wife during my break period and she tells me how she ran across that dirty woman in the wheel chair again today, and how she got stuck pushing her to the bus stop. at first i laughed a little, as if karma had had some true significance, then it struck me, this woman was going to expect a free push service all over the neighborhood from us all the time now. that's when i told my wife, "we're going to have to find a new route to walk."
