Old lady on a bus.

I sat next to a woman with a purple sagging lip on the bus today. At first I wondered if she was haughty, because I was occupying a seat demarcated for the use of the elderly/invalid (and indeed, she was in posession of a fine set of black wheels attatched to a bag). But there were no invalid elderly to occupy said space, and I realised that it's merely bus protocol; you don't need to sit and chat anymore. So then I thought I should tell her how lovely her hat was; it was one of those Russian-type fur ones, in a beige, classic beige. Then I decided that a conversation would be warranted; and I wasn't in the mood for talking. What would we discuss? I detest langourous small talk. Yet, I still wanted to comment on the aforementioned hat. So I would thus tell her a few stops before disembarking, to avoid the prospect of chitchat. Just as the point came, that I had decided on, I glanced at her ear and saw she was wearing a hearing aid. So, most likely, she wouldn't hear the compliment; she'd think I was insulting her, I might scare her, we might be forced to have a screamed altercation for the entire bus to hear. She might even actually be Russian, and hence most unlikely to understand what I was saying and more likely to conceive that I was about to mug her.

The hat went uncommented on; but she asked me if I could move so she could get off the bus at exactly my stop. She seemed really lovely. I should have done it.

The motto of this meandering narrative is probably carpe diem, or don't be scared.