Two elderly men had been staring at each other for about a
minute.
One of them, on the left side of the bus, looked quite tall
even when sitting down. He wore a long brown coat that covered his knees
(without a problem) and fell even lower, almost touching his ankles. The coat
didn’t suit him at all. That particular shade of brown made his face darker,
more sinister. His eyes, deep, of an unhappy touch of
blue, would slip from one object to another, rarely stopping on the man
opposite.
The man
opposite was a bit on the heavy side. He tried to smile at his (involuntarily)
companion every time their eyes met. His round face was glowing with happiness
and fullness after a good lunch. He spent many stops holding yesterday’s
newspaper in his hands that got to him by mistake from some lady who tried to
pass it to her friend. She missed and the man ended up with the paper.
“The next
stop…” the driver’s voice broke an uncomfortable silence between the two men.
The
one in the brown coat hastily got up. He was happy to get away from this
complete stranger who breathed with a desperation of frustrating friendliness.
The
man with the paper only slightly bowed his head, acknowledging the brown coat’s
departure. He smiled to himself awkwardly and looked at his feet. The next stop
was his. He left the newspaper on his seat and left the bus when it stopped.
The top article on the first page read:
There are reports of an unknown man
in a brown coat walking around the town and terrorizing its population with
inappropriate behavior. The man might be mentally ill so anyone who encounters
him must immediately…