Anita was gently rolled off her
savior's arms, and she felt his presence disappear. There was a faint sound of
his shoes scraping against the sidewalk when he stepped away. Anita sat up and
opened her eyes to see who had risked their life for her. She only saw his back
when she spotted him, but it was someone she recognized. It was the man wearing
the familiar, tight leather jacket who disappeared into the crowd. Anita was
sure it was the same man she bumped into on the sidewalk minutes before, but
she hadn’t gotten the chance to thank him. If she didn’t thank the man who
saved her, she would not feel good.
She turned her head from the crowd
and the man long gone, to the street. The truck that almost hit her idled on
the road, the driver jumping out of the front seat to see whether or not he’d
hit the woman. Anita saw his face first, an expression of pure panic.
There was no one to blame but
herself for that; she knew she would feel the same way if she thought she hit
someone. She might even blame herself, regardless of who was at fault. Most
people with decent morals would do just the same. He rushed toward her, but she
was no longer interested in him. In the corner of her eye, she saw a strip of
silk stuck to the kerb. Around it was torn pieces of leather, bits that were
scraped off of the man’s coat when he saved her. She grabbed the piece of silk
rolled it between her fingers, seeing that it was a tag; where the fabric
should have been sewn into clothes there were bits of leather hanging onto the
threads. There was no mistaking where it had come from.
She looked up and met eyes with the
truck driver walking toward her and she realized then how surreal everything
was. She’d brushed up against death and was thinking about the man with the
strong arms. How she wanted to drink a cup of tea and fall asleep for the
night! How much she wanted to be home, along in her own space. She stifled a
sigh and with a shaking hand, moved to brush blonde strands of hair from her
face. In the same movement she stuffed the tag into her pocket for later.
“Hey lady, you, all right?” the
baffled driver asked her. He stood there, all awkward at first, looking back
from the crowd of people on the sidewalk and to her several times before
reaching to help her up. Anita hesitated to lift her hand to his, but finally
decided to accept his help. Once she was standing, she took a wobbly step
backwards, still disoriented from everything that’d happened in the span of the
last few minutes. How she was even calm after being in a deathly accident was
beyond her.
“Yeah, I…” she
looked around, hoping that maybe she could spot the man who helped her. She
knew it was a futile thought. A question came out without her even thinking of
saying it.
“Did you see who saved me?”
(To Be Continued Tomorrow…..)
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