The back of our tour bus hung out over the edge of a cliff on a narrow mountain road in northern India, in the pouring rain. A cluster of men coached the driver through the slow and many-pointed turnaround. From my seat at the back, I looked down through the trees to the valley far below. “I should get off this bus,” I thought in a moment of clarity. Why was I hesitating? Politeness. Fear of standing out. I stood up, but only after Kim did. “You’re being silly,” someone said. Better silly than dead. A small act of bravery.
Prue Rains is a retired academic, American by birth and a Canadian citizen since 1990. She lives in Montreal.