My eyes concentrate on the ground straight ahead of me. In the building right before this corner, there’s a homeless man who sleeps the morning away. And he tends to discard his piss and shit in bottles and bags in this area. The last thing I want is for my gym shoes to accidentally step in or kick such a bag or bottle so I avoid all of them like the plague. I side-step each and every piece of garbage, making sure the soles of my shoes touch pure cement. But then, I noticed one of these pieces of garbage has a face. It was a small face but your eyes were open, looking at the train tracks of the loop.

The ground around you was gray with old dirt, making you blend in. You had been squashed flat, yet your innards are nowhere to be found. 

This area sits between 3 well-known college buildings, all of which follow similar schedules. So I can see how you would’ve ended up like this; the busy students ignoring you as they rush to and from buildings. Their heavy, quick steps pounded you over and over again until you were nothing but a hairy piece of trash. You must’ve been standing still, too shocked by something to move. Shocked by what though? Was it the cold? If so, I must've seen you when you were alive. 

Only a few weeks before I noticed your emptied carcass, a baby mouse, frozen in shock by the sudden cold, was standing outside of my college’s building on Ida B. Well Drive. A few students and myself had been let out of class early, so when we exited the building the mouse was noticeable. Because none of us were in a rush, it wasn’t stepped on, unlike you.

I slowly pushed the revolving doors, hoping that this wasn’t a sneaky mouse who was waiting for the chance to enter the building and escape the cold.

“Ew, is that a baby rat?” I said as I moved through the revolving door.

“AW, he’s so cute!” A student behind me said. This student presses the handicap button, opening the side door and letting the cold air hit the security guard who shunk behind her desk.

I wanted to say “Ain’t nothing cute about a chicago rat” but I kept my comment to myself. Ain’t no use getting in an argument when I just wanted to go home. So, I zoomed down the street and to the train stop, hoping to catch the train before the rush.

Was it you? The baby shivering outside of the revolving door? I can only wonder where you died. Were you stepped on in front of the school building and dragged on the bottom of shoes to Van Buren? Or did you manage to walk in the cold all the way to Van Buren and became unfortunate enough to get stepped on there?

Either way, you are there, mingling in the heaps of trash. I don’t know when you were cleaned up, but when the temperature rose and the construction started back up, you, the bags full of shit and piss, and the homeless man disappeared.