On the day of Tuesday, 1 September 2009,22:48:00
Shepherding escapades
It was a siren for the impetuous, a warning for the slow. The trains wait for no one. Before me, the skinny guy with a goatee leaned on the black belt of the escalator. He had already decided to give this train a miss.
Whereas I, uncharacteristically, made a dash and upon my action the dormant cabin doors sprang to live, moving like eager servants to their master, quickly narrowing to a sliver of light.
So I, uncharacteristically, threw myself against a pane of glass. My palm pressed against cold, smooth, cold, stupid glass, once a gateway to home but now, just glass.
Behind me, Skinny Goat strolled, coolly. I slinked onto a nearby bench. Skinny goat drifted onto the same bench. Damn. I busied myself with sms.
The next train came in four minutes. I stood up and made my way back to door that had refused me four minutes earlier, for this vantage position gave me the quickest route to the lift when I alight. Skinny Goat stood up too but we boarded, thankfully, from different doors.
At home station, I alighted and headed straight for the lift. The lift door opened and I entered, I turned to face the door while other people entered. Skinny. Goat. Entered. Damn. The lift moved upwards, the lift stopped, the lift door opened again and it was a beeline at the gantry. Bye Skinny Goat. I made quick steps towards the station exit.
The escalator surfaced into the night. Still puddles on the pedestrian reflected at once the night of the sky and the orange of the street lamps. The air was damp. Cars tyres squished across the granite roads. I bolted towards the traffic light and waited for the green man. I wished not, but once again, Skinny Goat came up beside me. I nursed my mortification as we waited.
We crossed the road together. We walked through the same gate. Inside the compound we went in the same direction. And here must be Murphy’s proudest moment, for we waited at the same lift lobby.
The lift reached my level. And I assure you this is final.
Bye Skinny Goat.
Remember, you don’t have to remember me the next time we meet!
