Philip eats a seaweed salad out of a Whole Foods box on the train ride home. The train is crowded. A man approaches him. He wears a backpackers’ backpack, and has long, light brown hair. His pant knees are dirty.
STRANGER
Is anyone sitting here?
Philip’s mind is elsewhere.
PHILIP
Oh - no, it’s fine.
STRANGER
Thanks a lot.
He places his bag in the space overhead, almost leaning into Philip with his waist while reaching for it. He sits down next to Philip and removes an apple from his bag. Philip looks at him and realizes he has two different color eyes, one green and one blue.
STRANGER (CONT’D)
Making me hungry...watching you eat, that looks good-
PHILIP
Oh, right, yeah.
Philip turns back to his salad. The stranger examines Philip carefully. He wants to spark a conversation with him, but waits, first taking a few bites from his apple.
STRANGER
Half-day in the city?
(beat)
Visiting someone, er-
PHILIP
Something like that, yeah.
Philip turns back to his salad again. He appears disinterested in the conversation. The stranger looks away for a moment then back at him. He appears ready to say something, but stops himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment