METROPOLITAN DIARY
Snack Time
Dear Diary:
Two summers ago, I was riding a downtown bus in Manhattan. After taking my seat, I started to look around. I always like to get acquainted with my environment.
Sitting across from me was a man eating sardines from a can. He noticed me staring at him.
“If only I had some crackers to go with it,” he said.
Just then, a woman sitting nearby opened her pocketbook, turned and, without saying a word, handed him a package of saltines.
— Annabelle Alston
Along for the Ride
Dear Diary:
I was on the M4, reading my book and only aware that I had not yet reached my destination, when I felt a gentle touch on my wrist.
I looked down and saw a praying mantis, full grown and perhaps four inches long. It was an incredible, almost otherworldly creature, with a huge head atop its body and six legs like thin sticks.
It walked hesitantly over my hand and onto my book. Its movements were as strange and wild as its form.
Was I going to shake this beautiful insect off onto the floor of the bus to continue its ride downtown? That way led only to concrete, traffic, more people and probable death.
As the mantis walked slowly and sweetly over my hands, onto the book and then back onto my wrist and arm, I stood up slowly. The look on the face of the woman opposite me was one of horror. How could she see this harmless creature as dangerous?
As the bus continued on, I saw a green patch of garden but no bus stop nearby. Approaching the driver, I asked if he would please let me out.
“This guy really needs to get to some green grass and plants,” I said, holding the mantis up for the driver to see.
He grimaced and shuddered.
“Whoa,” he said, stopping the bus and opening the door near the small triangle garden.
I carried the mantis, still wandering over my hands and my book, to the edge of the plantings. It seemed reluctant to leave me, but I soon urged it onto the first available leaf.
— Tom Hurwitz
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/nyregion/metropolitan-diary.html
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