Wednesday 19 February 2014

Commuter train



I got on the train to the city later than usual this morning.  I'm usually downtown for 8am but for the first time in years, I intentionally got up late and grabbed the 7:53 am train.  I grabbed a paper, put on my earphones and got settled in for the 45 min ride.  Not long afterwards a man joined me in the seat facing but diagonal from me.  I looked up long enough to notice his notebook and then went back to my reading.  He opened his notebook and began to write.  Occasionally we would look up from our writing and reading to look out the window at Lake Ontario going by.  It was an amicable silence and I stretched out my legs as he scirbbled out a sentence he had written.  I'm usually on the train early enough to see the sun rise over the lake but this morning I enjoyed the sunshine which is elusive in February.  The stretch of lake was soon going to end so I glimpsed out the window one more time and saw the most mystical site.  There was a band of clouds all around the edge of the lake, and in fact, IN the lake, and a layer of cloud floating on the water.  I looked at my writer friend who was immersed in a thought as he wrote in his notebook.  I had to share this gorgeous site with someone before it was gone!  I tapped him on the leg with my paper and gestured with my chin toward the window.  He smiled and nodded.  I turned back to the window and resisted the urge to take a picture.  I wanted to take it all in and I was already slightly embarrassed by my intruding on this strangers thoughts.  And all too soon it was gone and we went back to being strangers on the commuter train.

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