I saw a dead body today.

I was taking the bus downtown after school today. Like usual, I took it all the way to the station. The station has a big bus depot, is the end of the line for the subway, and is also a major long distance train terminal. There's lots of action around the station as it's a public transportation hub...crowds rushing, cabs vying for fares, people running to catch the bus. I was arriving at the station at its busiest time of the day.

Just before the bus turned into the terminal, I saw a large group of people standing around looking at a taxi that was stopped in the middle of the road. I wondered why it was sitting in the centre of the street, and not moving toward the taxi stand that was still a few hundred metres away.

Then, I saw that it had a pretty badly broken windshield. It was clear that a concentrated impact happened on the passenger side, just above the wiper. Before I could wonder what caused the impact, the bus moved past the cab, revealing a solitary man lying on the road. He had blood all over his head and face, and a small pool of blood lay beneath him on the road. His briefcase/satchel was about a metre away from his outstretched hand.

I'm pretty sure this man was dead. I looked for some movement to give me hope, but I didn't see any. His eyes were closed and his face looked peaceful rather than traumatized or anguished. He could have been unconscious or comatose from his head hitting the windshield or road, but I'll never know. He looked to be between 40 and 50 years old. While I've never seen a dead body outside a funeral home, I'm pretty sure this guy was not alive.

The cabbie responsible was leaning on his car absentmindedly lighting a cigarette, while a uniformed police man was relaxing about ten feet away. On the sidewalk, there were about 30 people standing around watching, chatting amongst themselves. Nobody looked overly concerned. All the while, the man lay dead or dying in the middle of the road, without a blanket or sheet to cover him, and without anybody to attend to his injuries.

Life seems to be very cheap here. While a man had presumably died minutes before, the crowed looked like they were taking in the evening's entertainment. The police officer looked like he was waiting for his shift to end. The cabbie seemed to be enjoying his cigarette. And I got off the bus and went along with my business, just like everyone else.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole situation.