From The Davenport Sampler

Broadway

by Lawrence Davenport

---

---

An old man with a serious physical deformaty and cerebrial palsey drags his contorted body with grotesque features from the Broadway bus in a draining display of pain, determination, and personal necessity. The prolonged struggle to disembark, aided, though hardly expedited, by crutches and every pole and handle and bar and corner he can clutch, drives everyone on the bus to scream "My god!" without a sound from the mouths that sit below the eyes that suddenly cannot lie. The old man turns in the direction of the mentally retarded woman who sits each day at his side at the news stand not a half a block away where the two of them becon passer bys to purchase the daily times, and he says "I wish they all had cameras...so they could take pictures...so it could last longer." Her reply is impossible to disipher. Eventually his exit is accomplished, the door closes behind the new arrivals, money is changed, transfers issued, wheels turn, eyes lie, the bus shifts its gears, and all again is well.

questions and comments to lsmith@mail.utexas.edu