在火车里面

...The continuing saga of the Fenghuang tales...

It grew as a storm grows--the sound we heard--gathering steam from the atmosphere, rumbling warningly of the thunder to come.  We could tell from the man's belligerent attitude he wasn't going to let this one blow over.  I tore my eyes away from my book to watch the coming wrath.

He sat on the once empty seat as if he owned it.  His right to sit on this train was as unquestionable as my neighbor's right to blow cigarette smoke in my direction.  No one would dare defy them.  His contempt for the train employee dripped from his words.  I couldn't understand much of what he said but tone-of-voice seems to bind all of humanity together with a common language at last.  His was as clear and sharp bold of lightening--the spark needed to set off thunder.

 When the thunder came it was sudden and it was deafening.  Three train employees yelling at the same time, with the man who refused to buy a ticket trying to top them all with his own voice.  The clash was enough to interest everyone in the car, and the next two cars besides.  I edged away from him in an attempt at neutrality but being in an adjacent seat didn't give me much escape room.

The voices escalated to such an extent that I was certain fists were going to fly.  One employee reached down to encourage the man to get up and his hand was brutally slapped away.  That was all that was needed to start the shoving.  The three train employees physically lifted the man to his feet and began pushing him toward the exit.  He resisted with all his might but was forced inexorably on.  As he passed the whole car erupted into applause at his forced exit.

As I leaned back in my seat to resume reading a horrid smell washed over me.  I'm no stranger to stinky bathrooms but some are hard for even the strongest stomach to bear.  Every time the train came to a stop the smell flooded the compartment.  It's a thick, sticky smell that doesn't flow by, it settles, covering you in stench like a blanket, defiling your whole body.

Then the guy in front of us started smoking and for the first time in my life I was grateful.  And I wanted to praise him and ask him to keep smoking.  And maybe light a cigarette and hold it under my nose for the blessed relief of its fragrance.

"The only way to be sure of catching a train is to miss the one before it."
-G.K. Chesterton