Treacherous breezes

It's cold. It is the third day that I wake up at 4 in the morning in this Central American town, which is fiery in the day and very cold after midnight. It's not like Toronto winter, but it's like those treacherous early spring mornings when the icy breeze coming from Lake Ontario catches you off guard.

I wrap a scarf around my neck and press my fingers into the pockets of my jacket. My husband walks 4 or 5 meters in front of me. Behind, looking at the tips of my boots, I recite a poem that speaks of an indigenous woman who always walks slowly behind her stern man.

Along the avenue a street repair is in progress. A worker in a helmet and vest who gives instructions to the others, sees me go by and approaches. I become irritated by him, but he only tells me what anyone would say: "It's cold, eh!".

How nice! He looks like Robert Redford, an actor my mother liked.

"Oh yes, it's cold," I manage to answer.

The man walks beside me and talks to me. He's headed to his post on the next block. The wind hardly let me hear him but since I feel miserable, I appreciate the company and almost want to hold his hand. I even laugh at a joke that I barely understand. At times, he looks at me perhaps because I am a novelty. My husband doesn't realize that I've been accompanied for half a block.

At the corner the traffic light waits for me and I tell him that I won't be crossing the street because I must turn left.

"Oh sure, have a nice day," He answers with the broken smile of someone who never saw defeat coming. On the other hand, I am happy to say goodbye because at 43 I have broken rule # 1: Never talk to strangers.

Redford still waves goodbye to me, as I run a bit to catch up with my husband and threaten him:

"Hey Terry, one of these days, I'm not going to turn that corner!"

Terry looks around the corner blankly, and the people who had a voice and a face have now faded among the traffic lights and the shadows of my room in this burning town of frozen early mornings, treacherous as the icy breezes from Lake Ontario.