你做咩挑釁我 II: 過橋阿嬸

For the first time in my 10+ years in Canada, I felt the sting of racism.

Davis and I got off the train at Southland as usual (well, a little later than usual), and were walking across the bridge toward the office. Some lady was walking toward us, crossing the other way, so I quickened my pace, as I was on the right side of the walkway, and Davis fell in behind me so she could pass by. Then I slowed and let Davis catch up to my side again. Two seconds later, the unthinkable happened.

An irresistable force pushed the two of us aside, much like a football player penetrating the line of scrimmage. We both thought it was the blind man (sorry, visually-impaired man) with his dog, but when we looked, it was neither him nor his dog. It wasn't even a man. It was a middle-aged white woman in a dark blue rain jacket. Before we could speak, she stormed past us, turned her head, and barked menacingly, "Don't be walking abreast like that!"

Bewildered and disturbed, I chuckled and said, "You could've said 'Excuse me', you know?? Learn some manners!"

Then came the telling blow. She spun her head toward us and barked again, "This isn't Hong Kong, you know?!"

I started to boil. I caught up to her and gave her a piece of my mind while she kept yelling in my face. She's so obviously menopausing that I started to laugh. The yelling continued until she went the other way to cross the intersection.

Gosh I had never met someone so incredibly unreasonable in my life. She claimed she did say "Excuse me", but when Davis caught up with me, he said he didn't hear a thing either. That's besides the point, anyway. If you said "Excuse me" and the people in front of you didn't hear, do you just push them out of the way? Especially on a bridge with cars driving past on one side and a rolling slope down the other?

Crazy ol' witch. Crazy ol' menopausing racist witch.