The Aurora Bridge

Rosette Royale: Standing on the Aurora Bridge, a man.

Behind him, along Aurora Ave., vehicles race north and south. Some 130 feet below him, on N. 34th St., the occasional car. It's a little after 10 in the morning.

He's been here for — how long? One minute? Two? Three? Maybe more?

No one can say for sure because no one knows when he caught the bus that brought him to the nearest stop. No one knows just when he set foot on the bridge. But he won't be here long. By 10:22 a.m., the ordeal on the bridge will be over.

Earlier in the morning, around 9 o'clock, he sat in the day room of the downtown parole office. His parole officer had told the man to wait there while he tried to solve the man's housing crisis, even if it meant all day. But when the parole officer went to check on him, the man was gone.

And now, here he stands, on the Aurora Bridge. It's Oct. 17, 2007.