Day 18: Strange encounters

I went out in the rain for a walk today to finish my steps. I walked to the center, went a little bit window shopping and then started to walk back home again. Midway to home I was just walking down from a bridge when two young people were standing at the side of the road. They didn't immediately see me, but I saw them coming from above and a little bit side of them.

They were both around my height, possibly siblings, but most likely a girlfriend with a boyfriend. Both in their early or mid 20's. The man grabbed the woman's arm and asked her in English "What the fuck where you thinking?" "Uh-oh," I thought instantly. How much easier it would be to pretend I didn't just hear and see that and walk by. If only they were exchanging words, but the submissive grabbing of her upper arm had already been registered in my brain. In three steps I was next to them and didn't think much when stopping. "Is everything good?" I asked them. The man seemed annoyed someone was interfering, but he let go of her.

"If he grabs her like this in public, I can't imagine what he thinks is okay to do behind closed doors," I thought. "Yeah, yeah," the man responded holding an unopened bottle of red wine now with two hands. "Okay", I said out loud. "Phew, that was easy," I thought for a moment and took a few steps forward, but my brain just wouldn't let me get off the hook just yet and I passed the man and was now on the other side of them. I completely ignored the man when I looked at her and asked "Are YOU sure?" She seemed really embarrassed, but she looked me in the eye and said "Yes." More intervening would seem strange, so I walked on, stopped for a second to look at the time on my phone, which is when I noticed they were already walking away. And so I walked on replaying it in my head almost the entire way home.

I guess there was a reason I was feeling lazy up till the point I just had to go out for a walk. I guess there was a reason I chose those exact streets to walk and bridges to cross. A mere 15 seconds off and odds are no one would've been there to witness the grabbing.

I took this photo half an hour earlier on the same bridge when I was crossing it to the center. If for instance I didn't stop to take this photo, which took me 15 seconds, I would've missed the dispute that was going to happen on the other side of this same bridge a half an hour later.
Steps (by 9 o'clock): 13 963

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