Human Connections
Real moments between people living abroad: a stranger who helped, a friend you lost touch with, someone you wish you had spoken to.
"It gets better after the first minute," you said at Barton Springs
I lowered myself into Barton Springs Pool one April morning, swearing very loudly. You were floating on your back three feet away with a green towel on the edge of the pool and said, it gets better after the first minute. Then you swam off. I stayed in a long time, counting. At sixty seconds I stopped swearing. At nine...
Missed connectionIt leans on purpose, I told you, and you said you knew
In the evening at the leaning lighthouse in Puerto Morelos you photographed it from three different angles and the last one was lying flat on the sand. I was on a bench eating mango with chili and could not stop watching. You stood up covered in sand, saw me, and held the camera out like you were offering to share. The...
Missed connectionA stranger on the wrong streetcar told me it comes back
I got on the wrong streetcar in The Annex at 8am and sat there full of regret while it carried me away from a meeting. You were across from me in a yellow raincoat, looked at my expression and said, it comes back, give it eight stops. It did. I was twelve minutes late. It was the best twelve minutes of that week. I do...
Missed connectionYou: "They have opinions." Me: "I can see that."
You were running along the Katy Trail at 6am with two dogs that had clearly never agreed on a direction, and you were being pulled in a gentle S shape across the path. I was walking the other way, trying not to laugh. On the third zig you looked up at me and said, they have opinions. I said, I can see that. You ran off...
Missed connectionDear goose, you did listen and you took the whole loaf anyway
At the edge of Lake Eola Park on a Saturday morning, you were tearing a whole loaf of bread very carefully and sharing it round the birds like you were splitting an inheritance. A goose pushed to the front. You gave it a long speech. I was on the next bench trying not to snort. You turned and said, they never listen. I...
Missed connectionWhat do coffee beans taste like, eaten slowly one at a time?
On Saturday morning in the Parque Central in Boquete you sat on a bench with a paper bag of coffee beans, eating them one at a time, slowly, like a very serious experiment. I was near the fountain trying to decide whether I had the courage to ask what they tasted like. The bajareque started and we both ran for the same...
Missed connectionDid the saxophone survive the ice cream on Quinta Avenida?
Around 3pm on Quinta Avenida you walked past with a saxophone case on your back and an ice cream cone melting slowly down your wrist, like a person who had made peace with it. I was across the street with a notebook, smiling like an idiot. You licked your wrist once, with complete composure, and kept walking. The cone...
Missed connectionYou raced your own shadow in Encanto Park and lost
Early one morning in Encanto Park you were jogging when the sun was just low enough to give you a shadow about nine feet long, and you kept looking at it like it was another runner. I was walking the same path with a coffee, watching you race it. You lost. You laughed and gave it a high five. I think the shadow won. I...
Missed connectionYou: an old paperback held up for me. Me: stuck on the L train
We were stuck between stations on the L train one Tuesday morning for eleven minutes and the whole carriage went silent in the way only New York can. You were holding a striped scarf and a very old paperback. I looked at the book. You looked at me and held it up so I could read the cover. We both nodded as if that sett...
Missed connectionI now walk the Silver Lake reservoir holding tennis balls and waiting for a dog
You were walking the path around the Silver Lake reservoir on Sunday morning with three tennis balls in one hand and an expression of very deep concentration. I was behind you wondering what the plan was. Then a dog came out of nowhere, you threw one, the dog caught it, and you laughed so loudly the whole path turned a...
Missed connectionYou with the coffee the size of a bucket, we nodded like soldiers
It was minus fifteen at 7am in Lincoln Park and you were walking toward the lake with a coffee the size of a small bucket and ice crystals on your scarf. I was going the other way, shuffling in a puffer jacket like a rolled sleeping bag. We nodded, the way people nod in extreme weather, like soldiers. It was the warmes...
Missed connectionWhat song were you humming on Bayshore Boulevard?
You were skating along Bayshore Boulevard at 6.30am on a pair of old roller skates, so slowly that a cyclist overtook you twice, and you were smiling like it was the best idea you had ever had. I was running past with headphones in. I took them out to hear what you were humming. It was a very old song. I did not catch...
Missed connectionDear straw hat, the pigeon chose you
On a Friday morning in a Casco Viejo plaza you stood with a folded paper map and a straw hat, turning slowly like someone looking for a street that had moved. I was on a bench knowing the answer and too shy to say it. A pigeon landed on your hat. You laughed out loud, took the hat off, looked at the pigeon, and then as...
Missed connectionIt was a good mural though, you said, looking at your sneakers
You stood in front of a mural in Wynwood on Thursday around 5pm with your head tilted like you were solving it. You had a smear of yellow paint on your white sneakers and clearly did not know. I wanted to tell you. I also wanted to see how long it took you to find out. It was about ninety seconds. You looked down, laug...
Missed connectionDid your shoes survive the elote at Parque de las Palapas?
You were standing under the string lights at Parque de las Palapas on Sunday night, holding an elote with so much mayonnaise that it was actually dripping onto your shoes. I said nothing. You looked down, looked at me, and we both started laughing. Then the band began and a family swallowed you up. I hope the shoes sur...
A chance meetingI want my life to run like that dog walker's rope in Roma Norte
A dog walker came down the street in Roma Norte at 8am with a dozen dogs of different sizes on one rope, and everyone on the pavement stepped aside without being asked. The smallest dog was in front. A man outside a bakery saluted. The walker nodded back like a general. A delivery driver stopped his truck and waited wi...
