notes from the commute

I'll tell you this story because the boys weren't particularly intrigued with it over dinner (a taco/lasagna thing) last night.

I was walking from the train to the car. It was one of those evenings where there is just a little light left and you could tell it was warmer just an hour earlier.
I walk at a brisk pace and dodge around people who are slower - especially if I am listening to music. (I kid myself that this is my exercise for the day. It's about half a mile, I think.)
Anyway, I was walking, briskly, to my car when I spotted a woman walking with a stroller in front of me. She was walking pretty quickly too.
This is what I saw:
the baby was well bundled, probably only about a month old
the mom had clearly made an effort to look "dressed"
she was young, about 30
she clearly looked exhausted
the stroller was fancy and new
I took this in and thought a bit. The first warm day. She was probably sick of being stuck inside, alone, I reasoned, with a new baby, and decided to go for a walk. Maybe the baby is a screamer. She's probably not getting a lot of sleep. Her clothes looked a little tight here and there, but she had pretty, shiny, long blond hair and some lip gloss.
Why the hurry though?
She seemed near panic.
I turned down the iPod...the baby was sleeping quietly.
I scanned her face as she moved to the other side of the street (though, I SWEAR, I was not stalker-ish AT ALL).
As she crossed the street I looked down - and that's when I saw her shoes.
She was wearing black leggings and no socks and gorgeous brown suede driving mocs...no socks...that was the problem.
Blood was dripping from the backs of her ankles to the tops of the shoes - it looked like she had gotten terrible blisters and had rubbed them raw and was bleeding.
Just as I noticed it, she bent to re-adjust the shoes and I tried, from across the street to catch her eye.
I thought, somehow, I'd ask her if she'd like a ride home. I was sure we could get the stroller in the back of my Jeep and she had to live nearby - she could just hold the baby for a few minutes in the back seat.
She didn't see me. I waited, but she walked on looking slightly more miserable.
I figured I'd get the car and pull it around to the street she was walking along - I could pull over and roll down the window and...(and yes, it did occur to me that she might be nervous, that I was crossing a line - but her feet looked so awful).
I got the car, tore through the lot and out onto the street...


and I had lost her.
I don't know what street she walked to and there was no way to start driving around looking for her as that WOULD have been kind of stalker-ish.
She haunted me for about a half an hour. After that the usual evening activities took me over.
But I thought about her again this morning.