Secret Message

The bus stopped suddenly
and a woman
in her early thirties
went flying

Uncomfortable
she laughed at herself
an automatic defense system kicking in
like the social survival instincts
of a pro

No one else was laughing
which highlighted her fake chuckle

Only I
and a man with a grey moustache
seemed to pay any attention

I decided to try and send
a telepathic message to the woman
something simple
just to say
‘I feel your awkwardness, don’t worry’

I projected my message out loud in my head
over and over and
again

shouting each syllable clearly
I continued
my face surely showing signs of strain
over and over and
then

she turned

Amazingly
she looked right at me
IT WORKED!

she continued to look at me
direct eye contact was held
for longer than three seconds
at least

Quickly
I thought of something else to say

I widened my eyes
breathed deeply
and composed

‘you know,
you looked like an old chicken in make-up when you stumbled...
and
even though no one laughed, we all wanted to
but because we want society to think we’re good people, we kept it locked in
we withheld
our honest emotions.
We wanted to laugh because you looked silly,
because it was your plight and not ours
and also because
you were not seriously hurt. But we didn’t laugh
because we were afraid you wouldn’t understand all this
and you’d think we were mean
but we’re not mean, really.
And you, you definitely didn’t want to laugh, but you did
because you were embarrassed
and you thought it would cover up your embarrassment
because you want to seem light hearted
because being light hearted
is a good thing to be in this world,
but you’re not light hearted,
you’re irritable
and honestly
that’s ok ’

the woman

looked away

I could tell though

she certainly
appreciated it