Ride(revisited)

I take the same train to work everyday, and yet as I walked in I had a feeling of sudden unfamiliarity. As though I was seeing through alien eyes. Scanning my co-passengers. Thinking to myself about them. Their uncomfortable moments, their day jobs, their struggles and their drifting days. Funny we never make conversations with strangers anymore.

There was customary silence between the curt announcements being broadcasted. I could hear the ruffle of paper, strutting of high heels, even the vibrations of the base of Linkin Park from the iPod plugged into someone’s ears.

I am still taken in by the unusually flamboyant old Chinese aunties with their bright colored shoes, loose shirts with large prints, and matching cheap leather purses. They stood out in the crowd of bleak formal clothing which was sporadically jazzed up with fashionable accessories-retro-style tinted glasses, fine yet conservative jewelry, and tedious hand-bags. And then there were the anomalies, the deliberately drab or bold dresses, smiling exteriors, breaking the monotone of the sluggish days.

I gathered my bags, it was time to alight. I had forgotten to get the novel I was reading.