“Who might you side with?”
The words echoed past me as I walked toward the library’s York Boulevard entrance. I didn’t pay them any mind, thinking I was overhearing someone else’s conversation. Behind me I could hear the growing hum of an e-bike. Without looking, I moved to one side; there are lots of e-bikes and electric wheelchairs in downtown Hamilton and some of those people drive like hell.
“The Proprietor – he gave you a push?”
This time I turned around. It was a huge woman perched on an electric scooter. Beneath a stained cloth cap she had streaked, wispy-looking grey hair, and a round face with red cheeks and a droopy chin. From the neck down what struck me was not the mishmash of old clothes that swaddled her body; it was how big that body was. Beneath her arms it spread lumpy
