I found him sitting on the road beam of the bridge staring at white lines that divided one side of traffic from the other. The lines seemed to have caught his fancy. His eyes moved slowly from left to right until they reached the end of the bridge. Once they hit the corner, they darted back to the beginning as though he were reading a novel that was written on the white lines. From time to time, he would scratch his head over the bucket cap he was wearing, and then start moving his eyes again. His unkempt beard penetrated his overcoat partially covering the holes on it. I did not know if I was being rude by staring at him, but for some reason, I was transfixed.
“Alright, you’ve said enough.” He suddenly turned to me and said.
“Excuse me!”
“Yeah, you. You’ve described me enough.”
“I’m sorry, Sir. I didn’t mean to bother you. I’ll be on my way.”
“No, no. It’s not time for you to leave now. You are supposed to
be sitting here by my side. But don’t say too much about me.”
be sitting here by my side. But don’t say too much about me.”
That was a little disturbing. Not only did this loafer tell me that it was not time for me to leave, he was also telling me what I was supposed to do. By then, he had gone back to moving his eyes again. Now that he had stopped giving orders, I wanted to sit there and find out what he was doing.
“If I may, Sir, what are you doing?”
He seemed to have not heard.
“Sir, who are you?”
“A more appropriate question would be, what am I?”
This was strange. But I decided to play along.
“Alright, Sir. What are you?”
“I’m a tertiary character in your story.”
“In my story?”
“Yes, I come in when the action doesn’t seem to be moving. Right now, for instance. What have you been doing since the morning?”
“Nothing much. It was a beautiful day, so I decided to take a walk. I’ve been walking for an hour now.”
“And you would have continued to walk down the road till the afternoon had you not seen me sitting here.”
“Perhaps, but how does that matter?”
“I should tell you, but I don’t know how. I think I have overshot my limit already.”
He started counting the fingers on his left hand while looking at the road.
“What are you counting?”
“It’s a good thing that you saw me counting. You see that girl in the distance?”
I saw in the direction he pointed. Sure enough, two hundred meters away, there was a girl on the other side of the bridge, looking at the water under us. Did I walk past her? How did I not notice?
“You did not notice her because she came just now. Which is also why you saw me sitting here. But I think I have said too much. Let me see how much I have left.”
He started counting again. I did not know what to do. I looked at the girl again. She took something out of the pocket of her jeans and threw it in the water, wiping her eyes with the other hand.
“I only have a few words left. I will have to be brief. You see, she’s the secondary character in your story. You are supposed to meet her on this bridge. But somehow, you walked faster than you should have and would have missed her had it not been for me. As a tertiary character, my job is to keep you here long enough and push the story forward without using up too many words. I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t. You used up words that were supposed to be mine.”
I must have looked confused. He waved his hand almost as if he was physically brushing my confusion away.
“Don’t worry about all this. She is going to jump into the river. I know that you are an Olympian swimmer. Jump in and save her. She is very hurt. Comfort her. I’ll be off then. See you, or perhaps, not see you again.”
