There Still Is Hope

Right, I am blogging for 15 mins and then I am going to do some boring but yet important paperwork tonight.

I meant to tell you the story of a little boy I encountered on the tube, on the way back from work. It gives me hope that no all humankind is lost in their egos, that there are people still in touch with who they really are.

Has anyone been on the tube in London? Between 5-7 pm on a working day? Even for those who have never been, it is easy to imagine the crowds. But, in order for my story to make perfect sense, let me elaborate a little.

The tube is a special place. It's weird. Cuz it triggers asocial behaviour. Yeah, that's correct. It is different from any other type of transport for few reasons. First and most obvious, it's underground. Haha, very funny, you think. Well, that means, you can't stare mindlessly outside the vehicle. Hence, you are forced to stare at other people, willingly or not so willingly. I do enjoy it, since most people choose not to and stare away at their shoes unless they are preoccupied with the stupid free gossip newspapers littering all the underground trains. So I sit and observe people's behaviour.

And then I noticed another difference, though I still don't know its cause or roots. People forget any social upbringing - giving way to the elderly, offering your seat to a pregnant woman, helping somebody with their luggage, etc. I don't know if it's the heat, the constant hurrying to reach somewhere, the fatigue before and after work, the unnatural underground environment, I don't know, it may be all of those. But it is a fact that travelling on the tube is weird compared to other forms of travel. (Unconnected to storyline, but I recently discovered that Transport for London did a survey, in which 81% of people who take the tube, admit that they behave in a non-accustomed way while travelling underground. Hooray, my observations turned correct!)

Now that you have the general picture, imagine me sitting on the Northern line going south at around 7.30 pm. I took the train from Euston and was heading towards London Bridge, a 15 journey of fifteen hot and often unpleasant minutes. It was my last day of work, not only because it was Friday but because it really was my last day of work in London. And that new found freedom gave me such peace in my soul that I was sitting on the tube and was even smiling. Not too much, but still my face was in a stark contrast with the grey, drained lifeless expressions of the rest of the commuters. Some people had their eyes closed, the man on the right was slightly shaking his head front and back like a zombie (that's very typical, too), some other guys in suits were standing to the left. The train was full, but not packed. One could stare freely at the person sitting across.

Two stops after I boarded, a mother and her son got on the train and sat almost opposite me, just one seat to the right. The tube went on, everybody staring mindlessly; or better - trying to look they stare mindlessly, seeing everything, yet choosing to acknowledge nothing. The boy was no older than 11. I would say 10. But definitely not 12. He, like me, I believe, has noticed the above fact - that people stare as if they have no mind at the tube and are awoken only by the gong at the end of the match, i.e. - the machine calling the name of their station.

As soon as the boy sat, you couldn't miss but notice his mischievous face and the alive look in his eyes. Kinda like Chris Rock before he utters some amazing truth or bullshit. And he looked like him too - same smile, I tell ya. His mom had a tired look on her face, the one that says "I just can't deal with you anymore, therefore I will pretend I do not notice the mischiefs you keep on doing." She stared for few seconds, then closed her eyes. The boy encouraged by this opportunity, immediately started his repertoire.

I didn't pay much attention at first since I thought that he is just a typical 10-year old, moving a bit too much and creating some unnecessary noise around him. A second later though, I noticed that he was actually talking to the people sitting in front of him. He had his left arm up, he was touching his "biceps" with the right hand and showing to his "audience". "Yeah, man, i got big muscles! They are so big!" He was looking from face to face, trying to establish eye contact with anyone. I don't know if he was just testing people to see if anyone would actually acknowledge him or simply was looking for an audience. I don't know, but he was persistent.

I laughed quietly to myself. He didn't notice me at first since I was sitting a bit to the right of him. After his muscle trick did not work, he continued with the next one. He would look up at somebody and raise his eyebrows vigorously few times, with a big smile on his face, kinda like saying: "What's up man, wanna see a trick?" He tried very hard with 3-4 gentlemen sitting across. Nobody responded. He continued the trick few times, again no response as he lost his attention for a second. This time he thought, I need to make something even more grotesque to attract some attention. He started making faces. Man, what an ugly face he made!

I laughed out loud! Few people looked at me, giving me an angry look. (Why would they be angry with me I don't know, but it is the tube after all!) The little boy noticed me. I thought he would be embarrassed, like any other little kid caught doing something naughty. No, he was not. He continued laughing and in order to stifle the noise and not wake his mom, he covered his face with his hands. That made me laugh again.

A few second later, he was peeping with one eye at me, his face still covered with his little hands. As soon as I look, he would hide himself away. And again like that few times. The man sitting to the right of me noticed us, but since you can't acknowledge anything happening on the tube (remember the rules!), he didn't do anything, apart from trying to follow our non-verbal exchange of communication with his eyes only.

At that point I thought the whole situation was hilarious. We were the only two beings in the whole tube that could do whatever we pleased and not care about how other people would react. So I made my ugly face. I only know one, I can't remember how it stuck with me since childhood, but it's called the "drunken worm". You fill up your cheeks with as much air as possible, you draw your eyes as close as possible together, and on top of that you try to pout like Victoria Beckham. Yeah, it looks as funny as it sounds.

The boy cracked out laughing, covering his mouth with both hands not to make a noise. After he got some breadth, he pulled his ears and bared his teeth at me. It was my turn to laugh. The guy next to me was visibly interested particularly at my odd behaviour but yet continued to follow us only with his eyes, pretending he's staring forward at times.

I kept laughing. The boy kept making faces. I tried to keep quiet as well in between the tricks as I did not want anyone to notice and spoil our fun. The boy kept looking at his dozing mom, just in case each time he would make a trick. At some point she woke up, gave him a quick smack on his hands, and closed her eyes again. I knew she was totally aware of his tricks and now her tired face perfectly made sense.

We laughed a bit more and the Dorris (that's how I call the polite female machine voice) told me "The Next Station is London Bridge. Change here for the Jubilee Line and National Rail Services." I waved him goodbye, picked up my stuff and left the train with a smile. On the platform, I turned back out of curiosity to see if he would do another funny face.

On the contrary, he had glued himself on the dirty train window, waving frantically goodbye with both hands, with a sad look on his face. I waved back and smiled. The train quickly gathered speed and disappeared.

I know he was sad, he had just lost his wacko lady "friend" but I was happy. His contagious laugh filled my soul with so much happiness that a week after this event I am still smiling. The world needs more people like him.