The standoff

You know how people, when driving, never quite know how to react when four cars come together at the same moment at an intersection where every direction has a stop sign? There's those precious few seconds where everyone is eyeing everyone else, waiting. Then one guy creeps up at the same time as another, so they both stop. Finally everybody is waving everybody else through, and it all snowballs until someone decides to hell with it, I'd rather crash my car than sit here being polite. With one car gone there is an audible sigh of relief from the other three, as now there's a reference point and everyone can go about their business. You know how that is, right?

Thanks to the corona virus (don't fret, I'm not going to rant about t today per se) I had the experience of such an instance while walking this morning. With social distance and what all, I have learned to watch ahead for other walkers, joggers, and those who have their dogs on a morning constitutional, and cross the street well ahead of time to avoid each person, as even near contact means certain death to us (okay, I'll rant a tiny bit). Others apparently do that for me too. Although I do realize that they tended to cross the street ahead of me before the virus struck, now that I think about it.

Anyway, that all works well. Until today. Today I had the experience of four of us coming from each direction about to meet at a corner. At that point the car stop scenario came into play.

Initially I began to slow my gait, intent on waiting for the others to pass. Yet each seemed to be doing that exact thing for me and the other two as it were. We all slowed until facing each other from four corners at Commonwealth and Warren Avenues. And we stood. And we stared.

The glances were next flying about as four sets of eyes (actually six as one young woman had her dog) studied the all others, none of us with any real clue what to do. We weren't masked and that's too bad. We might have seemed like a recreation of the O.K. Corral or an old west bank robbery if our faces were half covered.

Someone broke and took a step precisely before someone did. That caused them each to stop and take a turn back. The dog looked about as though we were all stupid. The staring, the watchful glances, began anew.

I finally did what a car cannot do easily. I turned around and went back from whence I came. I still had a few blocks to go to make my quota anyway.

The sigh of relief from behind me was indeed audible as I retraced my steps, the remaining three happy to have an exit strategy with an open corner available. And I'm going to get back to starting my walks at 6:30 when there ain't so many people about.