Unpleasant People I
Yesterday on the train into town two regulars argued. One of them is a known trouble maker. He has apparently been banned from his home station in the past. He's the kind of person who immediately sets off my alarm bells. Even in winter he dresses in only shorts and he looks straight at people in, what is meant to be, an ingratiating way. Yesterday he was wearing his customary shorts and no shoes.
The person he was arguing with was another man in his forties or fifties. He looks unremarkable and I don't think I've heard him speak before. Of course that doesn't mean he was innocent, just that it takes a bit of doing to get him riled up. He was sitting behind the Trouble Maker.
I didn't catch the beginning of the quarrel but by the time it got loud enough to penetrate my noise insulating ear phones it seemed to be about space. Presumably the Trouble Maker had complained about the Unremarkable Man rustling his paper above his head. The just kept going on and on. Every time I thought it had died down, one of them would start again.
After just a few exchanges I could feel my stomach starting to tie itself into knots, so I moved halfway down the carriage to get away. It seems to have gotten even louder after that. I could still hear them. At the next station I moved right to the other end of the carriage. After that I couldnt' hear them anymore.
Blessed silence! Blessed Etymotic ear phones!
The person he was arguing with was another man in his forties or fifties. He looks unremarkable and I don't think I've heard him speak before. Of course that doesn't mean he was innocent, just that it takes a bit of doing to get him riled up. He was sitting behind the Trouble Maker.
I didn't catch the beginning of the quarrel but by the time it got loud enough to penetrate my noise insulating ear phones it seemed to be about space. Presumably the Trouble Maker had complained about the Unremarkable Man rustling his paper above his head. The just kept going on and on. Every time I thought it had died down, one of them would start again.
After just a few exchanges I could feel my stomach starting to tie itself into knots, so I moved halfway down the carriage to get away. It seems to have gotten even louder after that. I could still hear them. At the next station I moved right to the other end of the carriage. After that I couldnt' hear them anymore.
Blessed silence! Blessed Etymotic ear phones!