heat indicator, taco vans, patient hunchback

1. A tough-looking young black man in a white T-shirt carries a parasol as he walks through a mile of heat shimmer alongside the new mall and over the highway bridge.

2. There are so many taco vans in Austin that there’s a repair shop dedicated to them.

3. I often see him sitting at the bus stop near the supermarket with a couple of plastic grocery bags on the ground beside him. He’s about three and a half feet tall, spindly arms and legs, one shoulder much lower than the other. He half-sits against the telephone pole, fitting into its skinny shadow. He doesn’t pop up and crane his head to see if the bus is coming, as I would. He seems comfortable and extremely patient. But then he’d have to be, wouldn’t he?