A man in a car on a phone. Small talk, then the speech elevates. Soon he’s yelling, then crying. It’s only a few minutes , but feels like hours.
Another time , a woman in a grocery story receives a walkie call from her manager. A few moments later, she is scared and talking to herself– telling herself how dumb she is, how she messes everything up and can’t do anything right.
And a few months later, a woman parked in her car in Bicentennial Park, on the phone. She’s arguing. I continue driving my daughter to school, but when I retrace my path to return home, the woman is still parked – arguing and crying.
I asked my wife to pick my daughter up in the afternoon.
One more time of seeing the woman parked in her car crying, and I may have come undone and parked next to her. Then I may have cried, and somebody may have seen me, then they may have parked, and also cried.
And the crying contagion may have continued with more people parking and crying and I would have been the one to blame for noticing in the first place.