The Wave

Have you ever been here, at a moment like this or a situation like this?

Somebody drives by and waves. Naturally, you wave back.

And you think, were they waving at me?

A mental muddle ensues. Who that was? What car make was it? Who drives a car like that? What did the driver look like?

You ponder a list of suspects like you’re solving a major crime, trying to winnow down who it was driving by at this time of day, in these conditions, waving at you. Ugly propositions arise. Maybe they thought you were someone else.

Maybe they weren’t waving at you.

You try to reconstruct the scene in your head to see if someone else could have been the target.

Or perhaps, like me, you’re sitting without your glasses on in the cafe, limiting your functioning vision to a dozen feet. Just beyond that, where you can put sight and awareness together to get some idea of who it is but not enough to see their eyes, someone waves.

And you think, like I did, they’re waving at me.

That automatic hand rises in a wave back but then….

In retrospect, you wonder….

Were they really waving at me?