Misadventures Along The Warm Route
There's a covered route that runs along our university from the Roger Stevens lecture theatre to the library and also to the Bragg cluster and the Geology department. It's called the Red Route because it's painted red. It's very convenient for students who want to get from one part of the university to another in a hurry.
I walk to my lectures everyday by what I call the Warm Route.
It's only half a minute from my hall to the Warm Route. I manage to get onto the Warm Route by entering the Geology department, which starts on the 8th floor, take the lift up to the 10th floor, and then go out of the Geology department and get onto the Red Route, from which I can go to lectures or to the library or to the computer cluster.
I was halfway through completing the Warm Route, waiting for the lift in the Geology Department, when an old, stooped man shuffled next to me. We looked at each other and smiled and then we looked away; me at the staircase, him at the ceiling. Saw Jason, one of my hallmates, coming down the stairs, and said "hi" just as the old man said, "Which level are you aiming for then?"
"Ten", I said.
"Oh, me too," and we nodded at each other in mutual recognition of our selecting the same level to get out on.
The lift came and we both got in together, and he pressed "10" with trembling fingers a few times before the light came on on the button. Was embarrassed to reach out and press it because I didn't want to make him embarrassed too.
The lift rose and he looked at me and hummed, then looked at the lift buttons and hummed. I smiled, wondering if he was a professor.
We both got out at the tenth floor when the lift stopped, and I walked out through the Geology exit onto the Red Route when I passed a familiar-looking old man. Did a double take when I realised it was the same one who had been in the lift with me. Wondering why we'd been going in opposite directions I realised that he'd taken the nearer Geology exit and as a result I was bumping into him again.
It was one of those incidents which makes everything seem slightly surreal, and so on that note I walked to lectures thinking that I would write it down, and thinking of an adjective to describe the whole thing and how it seemed to me at that time.
And I found it. Whimsical. That was it. Whimsical.
I walk to my lectures everyday by what I call the Warm Route.
It's only half a minute from my hall to the Warm Route. I manage to get onto the Warm Route by entering the Geology department, which starts on the 8th floor, take the lift up to the 10th floor, and then go out of the Geology department and get onto the Red Route, from which I can go to lectures or to the library or to the computer cluster.
I was halfway through completing the Warm Route, waiting for the lift in the Geology Department, when an old, stooped man shuffled next to me. We looked at each other and smiled and then we looked away; me at the staircase, him at the ceiling. Saw Jason, one of my hallmates, coming down the stairs, and said "hi" just as the old man said, "Which level are you aiming for then?"
"Ten", I said.
"Oh, me too," and we nodded at each other in mutual recognition of our selecting the same level to get out on.
The lift came and we both got in together, and he pressed "10" with trembling fingers a few times before the light came on on the button. Was embarrassed to reach out and press it because I didn't want to make him embarrassed too.
The lift rose and he looked at me and hummed, then looked at the lift buttons and hummed. I smiled, wondering if he was a professor.
We both got out at the tenth floor when the lift stopped, and I walked out through the Geology exit onto the Red Route when I passed a familiar-looking old man. Did a double take when I realised it was the same one who had been in the lift with me. Wondering why we'd been going in opposite directions I realised that he'd taken the nearer Geology exit and as a result I was bumping into him again.
It was one of those incidents which makes everything seem slightly surreal, and so on that note I walked to lectures thinking that I would write it down, and thinking of an adjective to describe the whole thing and how it seemed to me at that time.
And I found it. Whimsical. That was it. Whimsical.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home