On the street where I live

Tonight I met my neighbors.

As Anna and I walked home tonight there was a man who had collapsed outside the door to our building. Blood trickled into the cracks between the granite tiles that make up our sidewalk, and pedestrians were trying to rouse him. Once in my bedroom, I peered down from my window and looked right into his eyes and heard his slurred assertions. It spooked me a little, but also reassured me that strangers do stop and help. About six people with cell phones huddled around the older gentleman.

Calle Aguila is narrow, like most old European streets, and my window looks out onto the terraces of the building across the street. My neighbors and I leaned out our windows and stood watch as the police spoke to the man and looked at his identification. An older woman almost directly across from my window leaned on her railing as her cat’s silhouette delicately cleaned a paw. A young couple below her stood on separate terraces and stole meaningful looks and short conversation. Three older women in house dresses from the building next door whispered to each other as their soft bodies smooshed against one another on the tiny terrace above me. The family on ground level just down the street crowded in the light from their doorway, the smallest children already put to bed.

From my view directly above, I could see a set of panpipes lying on the roof of the car parked beside his body. This and the Bono (month long Metro Pass that includes photo ID) that the police were passing around led me to believe that he might be a one of the men I see every day playing his pipes in the tunnels and trains of the Metro. I felt a little guilty gawking, but the entire procedure was strangely fascinating.

We all gratefully watched him walk to the ambulance, an EMT gripping his collar tightly for stability. Blood still stains the sidewalk, but it was from his nose, thank heavens. Now music is playing softly in one of the bars or maybe another piso—a quiet twanging guitar. What a way to end the weekend.