Scribbler's Cafe

un*snap* judgement

Kiomye and I are taking the train to Osaka. It's already 6pm and we're both tired out from our days at work and school, but we don't care. We want to get O-U-T.

The man standing on the platform behind us reeks of alcohol. The smell oozes from his rumpled clothes, from his hot breath on my ear, from his very pores. Kiomye steps forward to peer down the empty tracks.

"Abunai," he says. It's dangerous. I pull her back behind the yellow line and thank him for his concern.

Our train comes and we pile on. I know with a sickly certainty that he will sit next to us. I am right. I put an arm around Kiomye, pull her into me, then open an English book on my lap.

The man is mumbling at me. I can understand his words, but can't put them together to form sentences. So, I nod and turn the pages of my book. He thrusts a small wrapped bouquet of pink and red flowers at Kiomye. Her eyes are huge saucers of happiness.

"Arigatou," I say. Thanks. I look at him again. He carries two shopping bags. One holds another bouquet. All white. Exotics, giant, barely contained by the bag. The other bag is full of novels, stacked and packed tight. I burn with the shame of my judgment. I turn to face him properly, close my book.

"Hontoni arigatou." Really thanks a lot.

He rambles along in slurred Japanese and I catch that he is going to see a woman and then something about she either loves him a lot, or not at all. I can't figure out which it is, only that whatever direction her affections take it is surely to the extreme.

His stop is before ours. Juso. I thank him again for the flowers, apologize for not understanding Japanese better.

"It's OK," he says. "I drank too much anyway." Shockingly perfect English. Almost no accent at all.

He bows and I bow. He stumbles off the train. His bag of books knocks against his knees and he crashes into a wall. He regains himself and descends the platform stairs as smoothly as if he were riding an escalator. My train bumps forward. Kiomye sits beside me, her entire face buried in the blossoms.

Currently reading : Buddha, Volume 8: Jetavana (Buddha) By Osamu Tezuka Release date: By 01 December, 2005

posted by Scribbler @ Monday, February 12, 2007