Puddle Nuts

What was I thinking? I looked to the left (I remember to look that way first now) to check for bikes and scooters coming that way, quickly checked to the right and took a little step back for the scooter that was heading down the wrong side of the road. Then I headed out across the bike lane after the fast bike and before the slow one, and out across the first lane behind that taxi whose driver was looking at me hoping for a fare from a foreigner, waited with my toes on the yellow line looking to the right and waited for the van and taxi coming that way, crossed the lane quickly before the big black car - then I went along the road a few paces to find the narrowest section of that long lake of a puddle, nimbly jumped over into the other bike lane (those who know me, stop laughing!) dodged around a couple of bikes and stealth (silent, electric) scooters, ducked under the loops of low-hanging tangled power-lines, stepped around the hole in the pavement... and I was at the bus stop, waiting for a bus to get me to work.

This is my street, where my home is. At one time I would have considered this street uncrossable, now I go back and forth several times a day - and this is one of the quieter streets. But it wasn't the effort of crossing the street that made me gasp and back up against the wall as far away as possible from the street. I had just stopped to think about how big and how muddy those puddles were. This was the most rain I had seen since we came here, and I wasn't really prepared for it. Sure, I had my umbrella with me. But what was I thinking wearing white jeans?

I saw a lady standing at the other side of the street, where I had been standing hesitating a few moments before. She was dressed sensibly like everyone else in dark colours, and she had two plastic bags of shopping which she set down at her feet on the ground. She seemed to be waiting for someone, and she was standing right out at the edge of the road past the bike lane. Just then the number 3 bus came down the road - it doesn't stop here and was going quite fast. It hit a puddle full pelt and a wall of muddy water washed over our lady on the road side. She just stood there, blinking with surprise. Well, at least it wasn't me in my white jeans.