Saturday 20 March 2010

Lunchtime Vignette

The train smells of beer. Cheap, nasty booze, filling the carriage. People avoid them. A man takes his son to a different seat so they're not close by.

He slumps against the window, slurring, stammering, whispering to the woman across from him. His words are thick with alcohol. He struggles to keep his head level. Sips Tizer from a can.

She cuts into him. "I've heard it all before, Dad."

He looks out the window into the tunnel, then back at her. "I do love you, you know." But his words taste of lager. She doesn't respond.

His granddaughter looks away as he slips into unconsciousness.


5 comments:

Michael Mouse said...

if I had taken this I know there would have been the very loud click from my camera phone.

Scott Willison said...

Mine doesn't click when it's on silent. However, this was the second of three shots - the flash accidentally went off on the third one, and the little girl turned and stared! Thankfully I was getting off anyway!

Jamie said...

Mine makes the world's loudest fake-camera noise ever heard. According to the instructions, this is to confirm the photo has been taken. According to asking the manufacturer if it can be disabled, it's because the camera function might be "misused".

The video function is silent, but then the video function can clearly never be misused.

Scott Willison said...

I just checked and mine has a silent function. I have heard rumours that certain phones don't have the silent capability, because of the fondness for their owners for pointing them at hot young things on the subway for nefarious purposes. No conclusions drawn, at all.

Jezmundo said...

So sad.....