Cross Walk Pullover

As I was relieved from work this morning, I pulled on my backpack and prepared to walk alone back to my room.  My NCO was toting around a newly arrived Soldier with his four duffle bags, trying to acquire a room and make contact with our company commander.  He was busy working, and I was not…that is the normal around here. 

The walk back to my room is usually pretty quiet.   My NCO and I are tired from being up all night, tired of talking with each other, and focused on the walk over gravel and dirt paths.  Everyone that passes us seems to be in the same situation, focused on the walk, except tired from having just woken up.

Today was different.  Every person I passed smiled and said good morning to me.  To which I returned the smile and said good morning back.  “This is odd,” I thought, “This never happens when my NCO is walking with me.”  This was awesome!  I loved heading home passing people who were smiling and saying good morning!  Such a simple little thing, and yet so amazing.  I started wondering why this morning was different than other mornings.  Perhaps when I am walking with my NCO we are so focused on the ground that people do not feel the desire to greet us, or maybe everyone had coffee prior to their walk to work today. 

As I approached a crosswalk, I stopped to watch for traffic before crossing.  Here, most people see the white stripes leading across the road and just step out into traffic causing unusually large vehicles to slam on their brakes to avoid a tragic end to an unknowing person.  Our speed limits are slow and pedestrians have the right of way at crosswalks, completely marked with white lines and yellow blinking signs, but that does not give reason to cross a road without looking.  This morning, it was good that I got my head out of the clouds prior to crossing because there was a truck approaching from my left at a rate not conducive to stopping in time for me to cross. 

I stopped and waited for the truck to pass, standing under a flashing yellow “Pedestrian Crossing” sign at the start of the white crossing lines.  Once the truck passed, I began to cross the road hopping on the white lines as though I was not in a combat zone.  Once I got to the gravel on the other side of the road, red and blue flashing lights turned on.   I froze.  Crap, I didn’t know only stepping on the white lines was against the rules…or maybe it was the hopping.  I did a quick check of myself, weapon…check, reflective belt…check, eye protection…check, crosswalk…check.  What the hell?

I looked up in time to see the FOB police pulling over the truck that just passed me as I waited to cross the road.  Apparently, the police were approaching from my right as the truck approached from the left.  I had to chuckle a bit because as I continued my walk, I noticed the Security Force Soldier pointing to me and then to the crosswalk.  Homeboy just got pulled over for not stopping to let me cross the street.  HAHAHA!