Spot the difference

Part of a mural on a wall along St Catherine, Montreal

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I woke up early this morning as usual and went for a walk. It was pre-dawn and the air was wet and cool (about 25 degrees celcius which, ironically would be 'hot' depending on where you're from). The vegetation was how I like it: green and lush and the mountains looked full (compared to when I had left ... everything then was dry and brown and smoky from bush fires).

I felt different, as though I was returning after ages of being away ... yet everything looked 'the same'. The Raj Yoga Centre down the road had their eternal red light on, wordlessly inviting people to come in and meditate. The newspaper lady's stand was at the bottom of the road (although it was too early and she had not set up yet). The same dogs were staring at me from their gardens as I passed. A few cars were overtaking the traffic pile up on the main road and using the empty side of the road like a Grand Prix race track. The same faces I meet every morning were there as I walked through the University campus (only less people were out, perhaps because of the weather) ...

On my way back, around 6:45 a.m., there was a freshly mashed up car in the middle of the main road, further up from the newspaper lady's stand. The accident must have just happened. It looked like something you would see from someone speeding on the highway. His back wheel was smashed in (s0 he could not move and was therefore creating further traffic), his front was smashed in like an accordian, his number plate was quite up the road (to tell you the speed he was flying at). The other car that must have been involved was nowhere to be seen.

It was when I reached to the newspaper lady's stand that I saw the other car, parked nearby. The newspaper lady was telling everybody what had happened. I suppose for as long as the damaged car is there, she will be repeating her story.

"This lady was turning in here ..." (she points to the other damaged car parked near to her stand) ... "and this man was speeding and overtaking and he hit her and went spinning up the road and he run out and come in the car park holding his head and saying how he could have been killed and I tell him yes you should have been killed at the rate you going so early in the morning! But I ent playing witness for nobody ... for somebody to come and hunt me down and say I say so-and-so?!"