In The Rain

Went to the 1st District in a light rain. Had a beer at Cafe Alt Wien. A outlaw motorcycle club biker came in, with his wife or girlfriend, and three kids----one about 4, the other two infants. They sat with another guy. The biker held one of the infants on his lap and seemed quite the contented daddy. You never know.

Left the coffee house and saw my very first midget of the visit, an elderly woman crossing the street. I figure I had the drop on her, because I was approaching from behind, but then I realized it might be a trap so I spun around several times, checking my 6. She pretended she didn't notice my little dance. Midgets can be tricky---if you spot one, be on your guard.

Had a slice of pizza at Schwedenplatz, standing under the roof of the snack stand. A guy approached me twice, once asking for money, then later for a cigarette. I noticed he kept a big bottle of cheap wine in a nearby fountain, the running water presumably keeping the wine cool. He'd beg a bit, then return to the bottle for a hit, then beg again. He wore shorts, no shirt, and an overcoat. I wanted to take his picture but by the time I finished shoving the pizza into my mouth, he'd vanished. The guy running the pizza stand was, as usual, a Turk. He'd jabbered at the guy in Turkish and maybe scared him off, I don't know.

Roamed around. Twice people asked me for directions, as if I know WTF I'm doing here, myself. I could only help the second person, an elderly German woman who asked me, in the Stadtpark,where the famous gilded statue of Johann Strauss is. I'd just passed it so I walked her back to it. "Herr Strauss," I said. Then I vanished.

Walked around, caught the subway, ended up again at Cafe Rudigerhof. My second beer---or, as I think of it, my "rent" for sitting at the coffeehouse, writing----and then again to the subway for home. Waiting for the train, I noticed a junkie was being tended to by three ambulance workers, who were trying to convince him to go with them, but when the train arrived he shrugged them off and got aboard instead.

At the end stop, where everyone has to get off, the junkie was still sitting there, on the nod. The guy sitting across from him nudged him. "Last stop," he probably said. "Time to get off." But I guess the guy had already "gotten off" and was too high to know WTF.

I noticed two train drivers standing outside, one of them making a call on a cell phone. For the cops or an ambulance, I don't know. I felt sorry for the junkie. Thin, long hair, beard---he looked for all the world like pictures purporting to be of Jesus.

And, hell----maybe he was, testing us.

I bet we got an F.