On the train today, I’m sitting across from a woman who is travelling with a little girl who is apparently her granddaughter. It’s a nice train and it’s no hassle to be sitting with people who are returning from a day trip. As we run across Yorkshire, the girl crawls around on the floor and the table and the chairs and the central isle; the train is a climbing frame to her.
The atmosphere is bright and beautiful because travelling by train in spring is bound to make one smile.
The voice of the conductor comes on over the tannoy system to apologise for the fact that the electronic displays in one of the carriages have stopped working. Normally they sit above each seat to give information about the booking status of each seat. She calls out in her friendly, but businesslike voice:
I’m sorry but… it appears the reservation displays in Carriage E have gone down, I don’t know why but they’ve just dropped out of existence
Everyone around me guffaws and the little girl turns to her companion to ask what’s going on, to which she replies, that the announcer just said something a little bit silly, and we all laughed. The little girl turns away…. “I like to laugh…”, the thought trailing off into the distance of her mind whilst she goes back to thinking about playing on the train, on my shoes, on her grandma’s legs…..
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