September 12, 1993

We have moved into a one bedroom with a loft and a deck for $1100 dollars a month. My name is the only one on the lease. So now it’s time to find a job and go to work. The heat and humidity are shocks to the system; they work in tandem, draining and relentless. I showered this day, dried off, dried off again, put on my clothes, left the house, and by the bottom of a flight of steps, was again drenched in perspiration. So, after one more change of clothes, I began to look for a job.

Nobody, it seemed, was hiring. I went from business to business with no luck. So after several rejections, I began to wander up and down Duval Street. The sunlight was extremely bright in Key West, uncomfortably so. I noticed that right off. Ok, so far, Key West is hellishly hot, equally humid, intensely bright, and completely employed. Great, now what?

The laughter and shouting was what drew my attention first. I turned left to look at the intersection of Duval and Southard just as the drunken couple on the moped bit it hard on the cobblestone and asphalt. They hit a bump on Duval and laid it down on the right side through the intersection. Their legs took the full skidding force of impact. Hamburger on a grater. I heard the people around me, myself included, gasp simultaneously.

Then there was that weird silence that directly follows situations such as this, the split moments before rational directives are formed and protective instincts take over. It’s that serene, surreal, collective shock of all participants and observers witness to and effected by this sudden turn of events. Did this really happen? Yes, as the images remain when I reopen my eyes.

Some people run to the moped, some run into stores, presumably to call for help, and others like myself stand and stare. Only seconds before, the riders were laughing as the stoplight at Duval and Southard turned yellow. Only seconds before, their lives were very different. I walked home, no more searching today, thankful to be safe from physical harm, for at least one more day.

I was watching TV when they went into surgery.