A UPS truck drove past me while I was walking from the train to work today, and an empty water bottle flew out of the passenger side and into the gutter as it went by. The bottle landed right about where I was walking. It just didn't make it up onto the sidewalk.

At first I was puzzled. I didn't get much sleep last night. I hadn't had much coffee yet, and it took me a minute to put the pieces together. As soon as it the whole event registered I was annoyed. I thought the truck driver was some kind of littering prick who may have even had it out for me for no apparent reason. The bottle did seem like it was aimed at me even if it landed shy of its mark.

The truck stopped in the street about 30 feet after the point where it had launched the plastic projectile, and the driver turned off the engine and jumped out to run towards me. For a second I thought he was coming to finish the job.

He jogged back to the bottle at the sidewalk's edge and picked it up. I was standing there, half awake, half afraid and half mystified. He looked at me and said "Oops. Can't lose this." He waved the bottle at his face as if it were a paper fan. "So hot outside. This is the only thing keeping me alive."

I think I smiled a silent response. I don't know if it was relief or befuddlement or empathy or what.

He laughed and jogged back to his truck with the bottle, started the engine and drove off.

I've been fighting allergies for about a week now, both here and in Tennessee. I think I'm getting sick now because of it.