My evening began with a call to Phillipe, a post-doc in the lab where I work.  It was Tuesday; I wanted to catch a cheap movie.  I used to hate Thursdays.  Phillipe lives only a couple of blocks from the cinema so we agreed to meet at the entrance at 8:15.  I also needed to deliver an envelope and grab supper, which I decided to do before meeting my friend.  I started my rusting compact - it looks Swiss but is really Korean - and hung the first left in the grid of one way streets that serves as my neighbourhood. 

I was already a quarter of the way up the long block when I noticed a queue of dump trucks waiting to be fed by a snowblower hidden in front of them.  I joined a row of cars trying to squeeze by the sides of the trucks. 

The speed of the lineup inevitably lost the ‘almost’ from its previous description of ‘almost nil’.  A glance in my rearview mirror confirmed that there were cars behind mine and it was too late to back down the street. 

Gradually, the drivers of the cars behind me began to back their cars down the street.  Except for the car right behind me.  There was barely enough room to tempt me into trying to squeeze between this patient driver’s vehicle and the truck next to it had  been going forward, but not in reverse gear as I would have had to.  There was plenty of room to make a three-point turn between the front of that truck and the one in front of it, next to me.  I completed a point and a half before becoming stuck, front wheels kissing the curb in the loose snow that remains after plowing.  I was not able to escape the soft, firm grip of the wet snow until two of the truckers helped push my car out while I spun my wheels. 

Perhaps one of those kind men was the one driving the truck that launched the stone that gave birth to the beautiful Star of Bethlehem on my windshield.  It glitters with holiday cheer in mercury-vapour streetlight glare. 

By this time I was too late to be early to buy tickets in advance, but I couldn’t drop off the envelope without being late for Phillipe.  What should have been a two-minute drive had already taken forty minutes.

The movie was entertaining.  Supper, popcorn with butter-flavoured topping, was not bad either.  Phillipe was his usual snotty, funny self.  I enjoy time I spend with him, but he’s no Isabelle.  I was originally supposed to see the film with her but she had to study.