SFTR: Crossing Actual vs. Imaginary Bridges
The substance of life comes through improvising our way through the unanticipatable scenarios—good and hard—we all face in an interesting life.
So there I was, having a significant moment on Mars Hill. I’d—for the second time—ditched the dude who’d followed me through the streets of Athens, and was back to enjoying my first night in Greece. Aware that I was being followed, I had stopped to let him pass me, and yet he somehow ended up behind me minutes later. The nerve.
When he tried to make unwanted conversation, I lied without qualm, and told him I was going to meet my boyfriend. It’s convenient as a solo, female tourist, to pack a boyfriend story. Dude apologized and peeled off, and I made my way to the top of Mars Hill, checking to make sure he wasn’t following me.
The view was incredible, and I was trying to wrap my head around the ancient history of the hill. I was reading the sermon the apostle Paul gave on that same hill1 in A.D. 51, when who did I spy with my little eye? The dude. He’d found his way to a rock several yards behind me, and was trying to act like he hadn’t been watching me.