The Derby Trip 2

The festival goers hadn’t all gone home by the time I did; quite a few of them were taking the same train as me. (I had to step over several pairs of legs in order to get off – and me with a fatigue problem!)

There was a group of three in front of me (on seats, believe it or not.) The woman in the seat immediately in front of mine was somewhat rotund, with gaps between her teeth, painted pink hair, fake tattoos, and a baseball cap that said Live Fast Drop Dead. She talked rather too loudly, rather too excitedly, and rather more than rather too much. Across the aisle from her was a young bloke who might have been her brother, if physical appearance was any indicator. He kept opening packets and eating things, stopping every so often to play out some little drama based on something remembered. He laughed at them; nobody else did. Next to him in the window seat was a saturnine young man who never removed his hood. He sported a pronounced hooked nose and a distended lower lip that was liberally hung with little silver rings. He ate the occasional morsel and kept his mouth open while so doing - which is wholly unforgivable, of course.

Eventually I decided that the young man by the window, notwithstanding his reprehensible eating habits, had an essentially peaceable – maybe even slightly mystical – air about him, so he got my vote.