The journey from my place of work to my home involves two trams, one interchange point, and a short bike ride on The Shark (my fireapple red pushy named in homage of Hunter S’s first convertable in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). It only takes about 20 minutes if I’m lucky with the changeover. Yesterday I was, I got out of the 51 at the transfer stop and the 50 was waiting for us. I walked across the platform and managed to find a seat in the unusually crowded tram next to the window. A strikingly beautiful woman of about 50 sat down next to me. I could tell she was foreign because she was looking very intently around the cabin and out the windows much like a tourist does on their first trip. We got to the second last stop before I was getting off and she says to me, “Excuse me but do you speak English”?
I had to suppress a laugh, and fight the urge to joke, probably better than you do seeing as you’re American. I said that I did, and asked her if I could help. She pulled out a notepad that had the word WATERLOOPLEIN written in capitals on the top of the page.
“Do you know where this stop is”? She asked casually.
“Yes, but this tram isn’t going there. You needed to get on another line about 5 stops back”. She looked as if I just slapped her, so I knew there was a problem.
“I’m supposed to be meeting my friend to see an Opera in 30 minutes. I haven’t seen her in 5 years. I can’t miss this”. Some tears started to well up in her eyes and I felt genuinely moved.
“Okay”, I said, “can you afford a taxi fare of about 20 euro?
She eagerly nodded, “Yes, money is no problem”. I believed it too to look at her. She was very obviously a woman of considerable substance. So I said to her to get off at my stop and I would call a taxi for her.
I took her down to the road, and called her cab, and when it arrived I told the driver in dutch the destination she needed. Before getting in she took 20 euros out of her purse and asked me to take it as a gesture of her gratitude. I just smiled and told her to keep it and spend it on some drinks with her friend. Just make sure she had one for me, and that would be thanks enough. Before she got in the taxi, she gave me a quick hug and beamed this incredible smile at me and said, “Thank you! If only the world had more people in it like you”.
I waved as the taxi pulled away, and she turned and smiled. That smile was last thing I saw of her; that smile made me feel so happy, that for a few minutes, I had not a care in the world, it made my whole day.
I wonder how she enjoyed the opera?
Padwanna
The A tram; a woman; the opera; and a smile that made my whole day. by Mentalechoes, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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