or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee, 

or that woman had remembered her coat and had gotten into an earlier cab, 

Daisy and her friend would have crossed the street. 

And the taxi would have driven by. 

But life being what it is, 

a series of intersecting lives and incidents, 

out of anyone's control, 

that taxi did not go by, 

and that driver was momentarily distracted.