11/04/00: The Mysterious Vision, Explained
Lately, I've taken to going for walks during my lunch hour. I do some stretches and then go walking for 20 minutes in some direction, enjoying the feeling of using my muscles and bones. At some point I stop and buy lunch, preferably somewhere I didn't eat yesterday, and preferably something slightly easier on the old diet than, say, macaroni and cheese, and then walk back. It's nice. Nicer than doing the same old stuff, anyway, and it gets the blood moving so I stop shivering in here.
I get to see lots of new places this way, eat at different places, it's a good thing. But as I return, if I've been south of the building I work in, I generally come around a certain corner which has been known to knock me for a loop.
The first time I passed this corner, I had this strange experience where I felt, just for a second, like I was falling, like I could see through the building to my left, to see the sky behind it, or maybe I was seeing through time, to a time when there wasn't a building there, and all there was was a grey sky filled with trees. Then I shifted and it was gone.
I sort of shook it off as one of those things you think you see because your eyes are playing tricks. But the next time I passed by that spot, I had the same dizzying moment of sight. That freaked me out a little, because I couldn't understand what was going on.
The third time I passed the corner, I had forgotten about it, but then I saw it again and remembered. Only this time, I saw why. It was a mirror. A bloody mirror on the side of the bloody building, reflecting the sky and trees over City Hall Park.
I felt a little silly, and went back to work. Time warp. Clarity. They do it with mirrors. It's enough to drive one to macaroni and cheese.