average life

The Hitchhiker, originally uploaded by taylorkoa22.

“Excuse me?” I heard someone say from behind me. I knew it was the woman who was sitting on the front porch of my apartment building. As I passed her on my way to my car, I gave her the half smile that was the most my face couple muster before noon.

I now turned to see her walking after me. “I’m sorry,” she began, “I know you don’t know me but I have a job interview at Emory and my taxi still hasn’t arrived. Do you think there is any way that you could take me?”

I looked at the clock on my cellphone. I had to be at an audio mix for the commercial we just finished shooting in fifteen minutes. Then I looked at her. There was no mistake that she was going to a job interview. She was dressed in a black business suit and her short, dark hair was pulled back. If she had gotten to the point of asking strangers for rides, the situation was probably dire indeed.

“Sure, get in.” I replied and quickly got into the car so I could clear off as much of the internet directions printouts that were scattered in the passenger area as possible. She opened the door before I was finished clearing the ice-scraper and black gloves which I quickly tossed in the back.

The ride was short and full of polite small talk. I dropped her off in front of a austere-looking academic building and she said goodbye. There was no great insight into the universe by taking someone to the their job interview, but my half smile had increased by at least a quarter. In a city in which you often don’t see the thousands of people standing right next to you, it was interesting to see what can happen when two people that were unknown before and will be unknown after briefly meet and remove the thick layer of insulation that we use to protect ourselves from the world.