Timing

So last Friday I had this dream where I was going shopping, but didn’t realize it would be so crowded. When the doors to the mall opened, I was pushed through and somehow I tripped a woman and she fell hard and was injured. I stood there looking and considering if I should help her. And berating myself for not helping her already. As I stand there, she gets up and walks to the payphone, “What’s the number to call for help?” she asks. “You know the one they always talk about on TV?” I don’t watch TV—-I don’t know the number, but someone in the crowd says the number, but the injured person at the payphone does not hear. Should I repeat the number loud? Of Course, I think and I do.

Sunday I’m heading home to San Diego from San Luis Obispo and the lense on my cheap sunglasses keeps falling out. I stopped in a small town with a small grocery store that carried cheap sunglasses. I’m walking to the checkout and I hear a small dog whimper- it was barely audible, but the young woman walking in front of me winced and made a small sound herself as if in response to the dog’s discomfort. I thought to myself “Sensitive. People say I’m sensitive, but I would not have even noticed that dog whimper.” This young woman place her ice cream and chips on the counter and paid with some sort of card. The checker was annoyed and said she still owed 64 cents. “Should I help her?” I slowly ask myself as I watch this young woman struggle to find coins, as she apologizes profusely for holding up the line, as she drops a penny and picks it up, as she is shaking trying to fit her fingers into a tiny coin purse. What takes me so long to reach into my purse to find a dollar practically reaching out to me? “Would this help?” I ask the young woman. By this time, she only owed 20 cents.