train wreck

Things you might notice if you are a frequent public transport user:

1. Somebody faints. And then suddenly everyone is offering their seats. Even the seats beside the fainted one is vacated. Apparently to give the person extra room.

2. A swimming pool located just beside the railway track. I wonder why do people even bother using it.

3. A young person approaches you with what seemed like a leader bounded file. He asks for your time, even when you clearly looked busy and tired. He introduces himself, shows his identifications and open the file to reveal some pictures. He seems to speak politely whilst trying to generate some sympathy. A simple ploy to get his hands into your wallet. He shows the stickers with a receipt of RM10. Am I suppose to buy this?

I was soooo tired. I was trying to be attentive, but my mind was mapping out ways how to say it in a nice way that I didn't trust him. So, I asked him, "How much will you be paid for this?" He seemed very shocked. And that moment onwards, he literally became nervous. I guess he knew I wasn't really going to make the donation. He removed a rubber band from his wrist and started playing with it between his fingers while still trying to convince me why it wasn't a scam (this time in a more slurred way of talking). I was just staring at his fingers, as he twirled the rubber band around his index finger. Gosh! It looks tight. His finger is all ruddy above the rubber band! I didn't really have to get rid of him. He just walked away almost on his own. I turned back, and he was already on the phone... Then, a monk clad in orange walked pass me. Coincidence?

4. Reading a book somehow lets you keep your seat.

I was sitting in the LRT reading my book when suddenly, another lady spoke in a very curt manner asking the person beside me to surrender her seat for a pregnant lady standing nearby. Is that supposed to make me feel bad?? I lost concentrating what I was reading, but totally ignored the fact that the person who grudgingly gave up her seat was now standing in front of me, perhaps thinking the same thing as I was - I am younger than her.

5. Some people can be really disgusting users. And curiously they are of the same race.

A guy digs his nose, his mouth is half open, revealing his loosely clenched jaws; drool almost flowing out from his mouth. After a good ten seconds in the cave while making sure he sweeps through every nook and cranny, out his index finger came, revealing a nasty greenish-black bat perching on it. He considers wiping it on the seat between his legs, then decided against it. He flicks it proudly like a daddy bird letting his chicks soar on their own for the first time. The lady beside him shifts her leg away to the corner.

A group of messy friends enters a train. All of them got seats. One of them has a drink. Suddenly he spills it, mostly on himself. The sticky stuff all over his arm. His girlfriend pretends not to notice. He surreptitiously wipes his arm over the seat he was sitting on. He dumps the empty bottle under his seat. He does not seem to notice the stares around him.