The path

I was walking down a barely trodden foot path along the river yesterday. It was a narrow path with a wooded, muddy, steep drop down to the river to my right, and a high, unscalable fence to my left. As I rounded a corner I saw three men standing in the path – one a young man, another middle aged, another older, in a wheel chair. They all looked disheveled and a little out of sorts. There would be no way to pass them without acknowledgement of some sort. With a path so narrow, I would be able to just barely squeeze past. As a woman, my sense of potential danger was set off. “Do I turn around?” I wondered. Then I thought “no. Don’t be so judgmental.” I continued along the path and smiled, made eye contact with the middle aged man who turned to face me as I approached, then the older man in the wheel chair, who said “Hello miss.” I couldn’t help but wonder allowed “how the did you get down here?” The younger man, with bleary, unfocused eyes replied “it’s an ancient Chinese secret.” I chuckled and responded “Ah – levitation!” as I passed. “It’s not so hard with two strong men” said the middle aged man as I walked away. “Have a nice day” one man called out as I carried on. “You too” I said, this time smiling to myself.