It was mid-afternoon. He was walking fast down a steep street. Cars were parked on either side of the narrow street so when a car came up in the other way, he stepped aside to wait for them to pass.
The car slowed to a crawl.
He wondered if they were turning into a driveway and looked down to see what was happening.
The silver Honda pulled up beside him. A woman he didn’t know stared at him for a second and then powered down the window, laughing as she did. When the window was partly down, she said, “I’m sorry. I thought you were a bear.” Laughing again, he put her window up and went on.
He gazed up the street as the car climbed the hill, wondering, did she say bear?
Michael Seidel, writer 
Leave a Reply