March 2006 / Train Ride / 3 of 3

One arm around the neck of the man, the other holding her cane, he with one arm on the dog's metal handle, and wheeling all three of them around towards the stair-well.

I was struck again by the dog's apparent intelligence, as it led a berth around a metal pillar that was wide enough for two people.

The woman's decision not to accept my help had seemed overly-hasty at first. Now I understood it to have been a gamble, a determination for things to work out as planned. For when you are robbed of sight, what more is there to rely on? Is it even possible to rely on the simplest of things, on the appearance of a friend or lover at a rendezvous?

Her instinctive decision not to accept help from me amounted to a demand that her friend meet her, to a conviction that this victory was at hand.

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