Overheard

I look into things too much. Too nosy. Too probing. Too many questions. Maybe that's why I'm a journalist.

So look down on us voyeurs, peepers and overhearers as much as you want but sometimes there is genuinely nothing better to do in the train!!

Okay, this morning I saw something really interesting in the train. Drama! Drama! Drama!

A baby boy struggling with his little buggy seat belt as he wanted to get out of it and walk around (as if he could!!) while his surprisingly thin mum was being chatted up by a prospective father!

This was their conversation:

Prospective Father(PF): Nice boy you got there! Is he yours?
Thin Mum (TM): Oh yes he is.
PF: He has adorable eyes ...quite like yours... really!
TM: Oh Thanks, but I really think he looks like his dad.
PF takes a quick look at TM's ring finger...'NO RING!!!!' yay...so he carefully structures his next line....
PF: And how come daddy is not out today on this little trip!
TM: (looks down at her boy...breathes heavily and then talks) He doesnt live here...he's lives in Southampton with his wife.
PF: I'm sorry...I really am
TM: No you shouldnt be...I'm not...

At this stage...baby has succeeded in slightly loosening the belt and looks at me with 'help me' eyes.

There is an uncomfortable silence which TM breaks quite unceremoniously.

TM: So nice weather ha?
PF: yeah...well! yeah...sure! yeah...(smiles hesitantly still planning his next move).....fancy a coffee sometime?
TM: Ah well, I'm not sure about that now...
PF: You hate coffee ha?
TM: No no its not that
PF: My sister and mom have this repulsion to caffiene ..i totally understand
TM: (laughs a little...looks at baby and then sighs again...she straps baby back in tightly...he had almost escaped....and then pushed the buggy to the door.....opens her purse...writes her number on a baby tissue and gives it to PF)
Call me sometime...i like coffee..(gets of the train!)

PF smells the tissue and puts it away in wallet....

I thought about this incident as I was walking to work...it wasn't just the baby who was trying to get the seatbelt open and escape that tight hold of the buggy....as he was doing that...mum was also struggling to break free and escape.... to live again..to love again maybe! or simply to have coffee with a handsome stranger.