Timing is everything.
If.
If I had woken up ten minutes earlier this morning I would have walked the dogs ten minutes earlier and arrived at work ten minutes earlier. If I had arrived at work ten minutes earlier I would have left work ten minutes earlier, arrived home ten minutes earlier, fed and walked the dogs ten minutes earlier.
If I hadn’t missed the 22 Clark bus I wouldn’t have decided to take a cab instead of waiting for the next bus. If I hadn’t decided to catch a cab, it turns out, I would have waited only ten minutes for the next 22 Clark bus.
If the cabbie hadn’t decided to stop in the middle of the road at Balmoral and Clark instead of pulling off to the side to let me disembark…
If you hadn’t decided to pass on the right side of the cab because it was still in the middle of the road…
If I had made a passing glance at the road outside before I exited the cab…
I probably wouldn’t have hit you with the door and spent the next ten minutes feeling sick to my stomach as I saw your arms and legs covered with road rash, saw your hands shaking with remnant adrenaline, trying weakly to apologize as the cab took off.
I hope you’re still as okay as you seemed when you resumed your ride south. I hope your bicycle is okay. You have my number and I hope you’ll let me know if I’ve done more serious damage to either than it otherwise first appeared. I hope you never call.
If scrapes, bruises, and brief psychological trauma is the worst harm I manage to cause a complete stranger for the rest of my life, I’ll be perfectly happy.
If I actually believed that the above were possible, I’d be a fool.
Creative Control 