I've Been Taking Pictures All My Life. .. Long Before I Had a Camera

I'm pretty sure that's a line from the 1995 movie Sabrina, and Sabrina's talking about taking mental snapshots. That happened in abundance the week that Rhu was out visiting because most evenings or mornings I went down and helped to collect her from the commuter train. By the way, if you haven't discovered this all ready train stations are wonderful spots for people watching and human drama. People are late, people run for trains, people hug and cry at train stations, they kiss hello and good bye at train stations, they wave, they laugh, and sometimes, they do something that so arrests your attention you can't think of anything else except wonder. . .what part of the story you stumbled into.

For instance, one day when Rhu was out here and we were roughly ten minutes early for her train, and it was too blisteringly hot to get out of the car and go to the protected little plastic bubbles they call 'bench booths' near the tracks we agreed to sit in the car and enjoy the A/C and just watch the people. A green compact car drove past and snagged the last ten minute parking only space. I watched, and nudged Rhu and she watched too, as a slender young woman with nut brown hair coiled into a bun at the back of her head got out of the passenger side of the vehicle. She had a thin blouse on that was rose colored or pink and it had a wide collar and a camisole underneath of white and that had some lace detail on it. She wore charcoal gray pinstripe trousers and had on gray or black shoes with a low heel. Over one shoulder she slung a petite gray purse and the other she had a small laptop bag of black. She leaned back against the frame of the car and pressed a hand to her face and when she did that, I noticed she swayed slightly. The other side of the car opened and disgorged a young man with brown hair, cut medium length and looking as if he'd run his finger through it a few times and decided it was good enough. He hadn't shaved and the stubble over his jaw was nearly blue it was so dark. He had the build of a swimmer or a runner, a long lean look, and he wore a kelly green t-shirt, tan cargo shorts, and had on his feet green flip flops. He leaned too, on the car frame a moment, but where she leaned back, he leaned foreword, and watched her. Then he got out of the door's way and closed it as she pushed off and headed for the island of green where one tree and some grass divided my side of the parking lot from the far side. She sat down on the curb and put her head in her hands, smoothing fly aways from her bun and then looked up at him as he sat down beside her. He smiled and shouldered into her, lightly, a friendly thing. She swayed with the motion and pressed her hands to her face again and then he took them and held them for a minute before letting go and standing up. The train pulled into the station. She stood up too and then grimaced and put a hand over her stomach and shut her eyes. He took the ends of her collar lapels and tugged on them gently. She didn't move, and he took her lap top bag and swung it over his shoulder and put his other arm around her shoulders, and leaned in and murmured something to her. She nodded, wiped her eyes and then followed him back to the car. She got in, and then he put the lap top in the back behind his seat, and got in. They drove away just as Rhu and I quick-walked down to the platform so she could catch the train.
(Hey, I love trains and she was my excuse to be on the platform!) We talked about the couple while the other people filed in front of us (we were last on the platform) Were they roommates and the one had driven the other to catch the train? Or how about brother and sister? Their coloring was similar and they were of similar build and height (remember she was wearing heels). Or they could have been boyfriend and girlfriend, and he woke up late but still wanted to take her to the train. Or how about a young married couple? Not everyone wears rings. Or how about good friends? He took her down to the park and ride because her car broke down. We will never know what the relationship was, and we will likewise never know why she didn't go to work that day. She could have been just getting over the flu, she could have been dreading something at the office, she could have been suffering from the heat, or she could have been pregnant and not showing quite yet. There were so many possibilities that my mind spun back to them the rest of the day. I'd found myself in the middle of a story, and my mind had snapped the vignette as crisp and clean as the iris of a camera lense catching a moment on film.