I stepped onto my train that afternoon. I was so tired I just wanted to go home and hugged my babies. But as usual, the Bahn never fail to tell me its stories
***
The train stopped and the doors opened. A lady whom I thought looked like Korean entered. She hurriedly sat down and was busy with the earphones on her ear. She was quiet and listening intently. A little short while after that, she spoke in Korean and was close to tears. I looked at her and she didn’t even look like she was concerned with so many eyes on her. She hung up and was back to quiet. I went back to my book and silently hoped that she was okay.
***
Another stop. A stroller came in. The baby inside was crying. I know that kind of cry. He was exhausted. It was close to 6 pm so perhaps he just came back from childcare. The mother tried her best to calm him down. “Sssh, sshh”, she said. The baby did not stop crying. The mother didn’t give up either. She took the baby out of the stroller and cuddled him. I noticed no one was bothered to give her a seat. I wanted to stand up but my seat was too far away from her. Someone else would have taken my seat before I could even reach out to her. The baby calmed down after a while and she put him down back into the stroller. Oh how I miss my babies. I hoped the baby and the mother reach home safely.
***
A homeless beggar walked around asking for spare changes. He was holding a paper cup. Some people gave him some coins, some people didn’t. And some other were too busy with the music from their streaming services. The beggar walked away. He looked into his paper cup and silently counted the coins inside. I was thinking if those were enough to buy him some warm food?
***
I heard a violin sound. A busker came inside the train. He was playing a song that I didn’t know but the violin matched the song really well. It was a short 5 minutes show. He played the violin really well. I wonder if he went to a music school when he was young? And then he walked around with another paper cup. I gave him my only coin left. I made a mental note that I need to take some coins from the can at home.
***
There we go. My stop. I stood up and went to the door. I pushed the button to open it. And off I went to my bus stop.
Berlin, November 2019
