concerned passers-by

Today I saw a girl nearly get run over by a bus. I was walking to take the subway home to Brooklyn at that beautiful moment of day when the sky is just a shade lighter than midnight blue. I was standing at the curb waiting to cross 42nd Street. Since Times Square is an experience in sensory overload, I didn't notice her at first; instead, I heard a man yell, "Hey, look out!"

"Watch it!" someone else said in a more urgent tone. Since Times Square is also not a place where people usally take a great deal of interest in one another's business, this caught my attention.

And then I saw her, in the middle of 42nd Street, calmly -- no, obliviously -- crossing against the light, amid a stream of cars and the bus, not a city bus but some kind of intercity or tour bus, just feet away. I held my breath, and time seemed to stop for a moment.

And then it was over. The bus driver slowed down and with unusual restraint did not even honk. The girl kept walking, into the stream of cars going the other way, which also managed to miss her. I could see her better now; she had long blonde hair and appeared to be talking on a cell phone. "She never even looked!" someone said behind me.