The Avenue

Artful jaywalking

It was in late winter when the accident occurred. From the window in his fourth floor apartment he could see the very spot where it had happened. He was merely walking to the market that was one block away. The sidewalk had been icy that day.

There was a four-lane avenue between him and the market. Most people would walk to the very end of the block to cross the busy avenue at the intersection where there was a crosswalk and electronic ‘Walk’ and ‘Don’t Walk’ signals. But he never did that. He crossed the wide avenue somewhere in the middle of the block.

He was forever grateful that his accident did not occur while crossing the avenue and did not involve being hit by a car. He was simply walking down the sidewalk repeatedly peering over his shoulder looking for a break in traffic so that he could cross the street.

He had not walked far when he saw a break and turned to cross the street and that is when he slipped on a patch of ice on the sidewalk and went flying through the air. As he fell on the hard sidewalk he broke his left leg, his right arm and he suffered a mild concussion. To him, it seemed almost as bad as if he had been hit by a car.

It was in spring that he spent a great deal of time at his window staring down at the sidewalk where he met his icy fate. He was on sick leave from his…