Saturday, September 03, 2022

San Francisco Afternoon

There was a dog on the bus.

A large black dog, sprawled across the aisle on a packed rush-hour bus in the Mission. On Thursday night, I’d fled the heat of LA for the temperate comfort of the Bay Area.

“He has beautiful blue eyes,” said a passenger.

No one added “And he’s lying in the way, sir. Can your dog scootch over so people don’t trip over your black-haired blue-eyed dog?”

I thought about suggesting the dog was wearing blue contacts, but I said nothing.

As I pulled the wire to signal the driver to stop, I glanced at the dog’s person.

He was staring at me intently. He had a single blue vertical line tattooed down the center of his nose. I started wondering about gangs in San Francisco. I carefully stepped around the dog’s tail, feeling like the dog owner had seen I’d taken notes on his dog. I hurried off the bus and disappeared into the crowd of Market Street.

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