Scary Monsters and Super Creeps

Wednesday 9th October 2006

Danny Allegro, coot-bald at twenty, black features on a white face, in a long coat of one colour, sat on the last train of the rush hour, which was packed in a semi-leisurely way with stragglers and office Joes who turn up ten minutes after the rest. Danny wasn't going to work. His seat was in the aisle at the back of a carriage, and today he was facing people.

His attention was drawn to a girl with Dan Dare eyebrows sitting down with a parcel wrapped brown and plain in her lap, and the old woman standing and smiling patiently next to her, an orange ribbon in her dust grey hair. As far as Danny knew, the girl had been on the train when he boarded, she wasn't moving for anybody, and this old bag could just stand there until her legs gave way, he imagined her thinking.

That was when she looked at him, briefly, but definitely. Then she turned to look for the first time at the old woman, who looked down to smile an old smile, then back up to stare in the direction the train was going. The girl with the Dan Dare eyebrows leant forward over her parcel. Danny squinted, was she kissing it? He was a good twelve foot away. Something in his long coat moved.

He whispered "shhhhh", stroking out a wrinkle he'd just noticed in the fabric, and craned his head back up to look at the girl with the Dan Dare eyebrows.

The old woman wasn't standing any more. A further check showed the old woman wasn't on the train any more, though he'd looked down for less than three seconds. He watched the girl smile.
She shifted in her seat and looked at him. The parcel in her lap was larger than before, and tied with an orange ribbon. The carriage lights flickered and went out.