a parallel track mind
It was the day after the elections. The country had taken a vicious swing to the right. I had to get out of the big bad city, so I took a train down to the coast. Behind me sat an American woman and her young son.
'Wudga cut that out. But immediately!' I heard her say.
The beach was overcrowded, I should have known. So, I walked for five minutes to the park and went into the cafΓ© by the lake. I sat inside in a corner which commanded a good view through large plate glass windows. It was very quiet inside; just the sound of the coffee machine going as the odd customer came in, ordered, then took a glass of piping hot coffee outside.
I explained to the sulky young woman who was working behind the counter why I'd simply had to get out of the city.
'But it wasn't the city who voted them in, it was places like this, you know that, right? Backward places,' she said, 'I nearly didn't come in today myself. I thought I had to get out of here. I very nearly took a train up to the city.'
I laughed.
'If you had,' I said, 'our trains might have passed one another.'
Her lips moved from a pout to a smile, loosening her face a good deal, shaking the sulk out.
'Yes, just think of that,' she said.
We both held onto that thought, watching it crystalize into an image. I noted that above those mobile lips she had a cute, snubbed nose.
'What would you like?' she asked.
'CafΓ© lattΓ©,' I said.
'We do a very good goat's milk,' she said.
'Okay, one of those as well.'
Back at my table, I looked at the people outside. Five swans flew low, clattering across the lake. I fingered the novel I was reading, My Ten Years in a Quandry, but couldn't really get into it. I went back up to the counter for a second cup of coffee.
'And another goat's milk?' the young woman asked brightly.
'No, I haven't quite made it through the first one yet, it smells a bit of ...'
'Goat?' she hazarded.
'Well, yes.'
She popped a mini-Snickers onto the saucer.
'Sorry, I forgot the first time round.'
I felt my inner strength returning; my mind seemed somehow muscular.
'You know,' I said, 'what you were saying before about going into the city?'
'Yes?'
'Well, how about coming in with me and seeing the new Scorsese picture, it's picked up some pretty decent reviews.'
She seemed to consider.
'We could be sulky together,' I added.
She looked across her counter at me.
'I have a better idea,' she said.
'Yes?'
'Why don't you come out here again tomorrow. Take the ten o'clock train.'
'Will you be here, working?'
'No, I'll be on the ten o'clock going the other way. Let's see if we can't spot one another when those trains pass.'
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