Perhaps it had been the mark of things to come, though till it arrived they did not know it (or, as some stated, they’d preferred ignoring the possibility).
There were so many explanations: Bad weather, a change in allocation, inability to keep up with need, aging infrastructure, decline in the number of those who knew how to fix things with handiwork instead of keyboards.
Of course, the sidewalks didn’t crumble overnight. It took years. Yet somehow people had dismissed a steady rise in ankle injuries. They merely shook their heads when accessibility was reduced to the long-legged spry. There was no outcry. After all, most people didn’t ambulate with strollers, walking-sticks or wheelchairs.
In the end it was the roller-bags that tipped the scale. What unconscionable disrepair allowed wheels to break in ways manufacturers won’t cover? People could not be reduced to lifting suitcases when they needed to go somewhere!
For Crispina’s Crimson’s Creative Challenge
Na'ama Yehuda 
Good story! Creepy and all too possible.
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Thanks! Yes, I think many times people put up with things that oughtn’t be put up with, just because they do not affect them directly … even if they affect others profoundly … We’d all do well to see the world through the eyes of others, especially through the eyes of those who are more vulnerable and who have less options than us.
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I concur. Well said!
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🙂 Thank you!
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What a wonderful story about the gradual process of decay 🙂
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Thanks, Crispina! And, perhaps, also a little bit about the on/off realities of how much can be ignored before it suddenly reaches a ‘critical mass’ and cannot …
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Yea, there is that as well. Guess I was taking that as part of the aging process. But… with current affairs, it takes on a new meaning
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Yes, very much so!
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🙂
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