Ride

Yesterday, at the greyed-out bus stop, the overcast sky dampening the thought of sound and thoughts themselves, the Asian dude who was doing calisthenics -- squats, push-ups -- on the first day at the stop drove up in a van and asked "Do you want a ride?"

 The open way he asked, spontaneously, since we rode the bus everyday together, made me spontaneously say yes. Plus, something about him seamed interesting and hardcore. His left eye, I noticed when I got in was slightly puffy, as if from a fight. He started complaining about the van. And I said it's not bad. He said he used to have a Benz. I asked what happened. He said the Feds took it, money laundering. Spent five years in jail, was in a half-way house near my new place. In jail for five years ...