II. Commuter with the Leaf

Station – again – wet – leaves stuck to my boot – the moors   again – coughing man – button – flashing – red – button – flashing green – coughing man – leaf on boot

And I press the grey button again, the button with a big yellow circle that’s a bit dirty and isn’t that yellow anymore, there’s two two arrows pointing outwards, it’s not yet lit, around the grey button there are lights that flash when its time for the doors to open, you have to wait, yes, I see people through the window next to the button and I see a woman with a pram and I think about Esme and I think about struggling to put her pram onto a bus or onto a train, it was more complicated with the bus because you had to pay the driver, but there was less of a gap between the pavement and the bus than there is between the station edge and the train, yes I always hated that, and I press the grey button with two arrows pointing outward with a big yellow circle that’s a bit dirty and isn’t that yellow anymore and I know its impatient of me but there’s something satisfying about pressing the button and I’m usually the first one to press it and I usually stand in this spot because then I know I can always get a seat and whilst I wait for the train to arrive I get to look at the oak tree behind the tracks and the houses behind the tree and wishfully think about how nice it would be to live there because then I wouldn’t have to walk as far to the station, the lights begin to flicker first red then green and the doors open, I think about the announcement the train makes, please mind the gap between the train and the platform edge, yes you need to watch the gap it’s a big gap and you might slip on the platform, especially if it’s raining like today, as the doors open and the window no longer separates us I see the woman with the pram, she has a little boy holding her hand, I ask if she needs help and she looks thankful and I grab hold of the handle, its padded not plastic and I help to place it onto the platform, she says thank you very much and I smile to reply, she tells the boy to hurry up and that people need to get off onto the platform, yes, they do I think and I think about how patient you have to be when you’re a parent and how you have to think about your children and that you have to make sure that they don’t wander off or that they don’t keep other people up, my hair is a little bit wet but I don’t mind and after the woman two teenagers go onto the platform, why couldn’t they help? or why didn’t they bother to ask? But I think it’s quite hard to help when you’re behind because there’s nobody at the front to help you carry the pram onto the platform, yes that’s it, it’s much easier to help someone carry a pram when you’re coming onto the train and they’re leaving the train, it’s raining a little bit so I’m glad to get on the train, and I look for a seat and I see one free by the window so I walk over to the seat and sit down, I look at my boots and there’s a wet leaf that’s stuck to my boot, it must have been hiding there from when I walked to the station, yes, it rained a lot yesterday and there were lots of big puddles that I had to avoid but its not raining as much here today so I should count myself lucky,

This is the 8:20 TransPennine service to Manchester Picadilly, calling at Marsden, Greenfield, Mosley, Staleybridge, and Manchester Picadilly. The next stop will be Marsden.

and I think about the announcement and how it has always been the same, except if you get on at Huddersfield the announcer used to say Slaithwaite as its written when its pronounced Slathwaite, and lots of people complained and I suppose it’s like someone always saying your name wrong like if you’re Spanish and called José and an English man says the J rather than hose as you’d say it in Spanish, but then again nobody from Slaithwaite called it that we called it Slawit, so then the announcement changed again to Slawit which is quite nice, it makes the train feel more homely like its part of the village, the seat is rather comfortable and I have a table so I can rest my hands and dry off a bit even if I’m not that wet and only a little bit wet, and if I had a coffee I could place it on the table and not have to worry about it spilling onto my lap, which might happen if I sat in a seat with one of those folding-down tables, not that I would buy a coffee in Slawit as there aren’t any cafés on the way to the station, there’s not even a little shop on the platform, only a ticket machine, and it’s on the opposite platform, so if the machine breaks there’s nobody you can speak to and you have to phone a number or ask the guard on the train but sometimes there’s not even a guard on the train so then what are you supposed to do, I look out the window and see the woman and her pram walking quickly to avoid the rain, the little boy is going to get wet hair like me because he doesn’t have a raincoat like me, and the train begins to move and I move faster than the woman with the pram, I look out at the moors and there’s mist on the tops so you can’t quite make them out, there’s still heather near the tops, heather always smells best in September but its late October now so the colours have faded and gone a bit brown, you can’t really see the heather that clearly but it’s still nice to look out and see the moors today, they look very beautiful and I think about going to pick heather with Esme when she was little and how she hid it in Julia’s card, she was so happy when she opened the card and it said Happy Birthday Mum, she had written it herself and then a sprig of heather fell onto her lap and she smiled, how beautiful her smile was, and Esme looked so happy that Julia was happy too and I smiled too, the carriage is a bit quiet which is strange as its usually full of commuters, it gets busier as the train gets closer to Manchester, I like the train to Manchester, you leave Yorkshire and there’s still moors in Lancashire, there’s still heather there too or there was still some yesterday and I think about the wet leaf on my boot and how I should probably take it off but I leave it there, the train is very quiet today, yes, maybe quieter than usual and I like going at this time because I can get a seat and look out the window and I think about how many times I press that button with the yellow circle and the grey button that has arrows that point outwards, I’m always the first one to press it when I get on and I’m usually the first one to press the button when the train gets into Manchester, I like to get out of my seat a bit earlier because then I don’t have to queue in the aisles and disturb people in case the train rocks a bit, I must have pressed that button thousands of time and I always press it early I don’t know why but I feel like it might open even though it’s not lit, it’s so clever that the doors don’t open when the button isn’t lit, I suppose it stops people from jumping out whilst the train is still moving but sometimes it does take a long time to light up and I stand there and feel like people are waiting for me but I can’t control the doors even if I wanted to, you have to wait for the light to flash and then you can open the doors I feel like I have to explain to them, the rain is getting heavier as we get closer to Marsden, it always rains in Marsden, Esme would say when Julia and I would take her to her friend’s house, Julia became friends with the mother when she would take Esme to gymnastics, but I could never go to gymnastics practice as I was working so Julia and Louise would always have something to talk about and I would have to talk to Greg about the news or football and I never really liked football so I would have to look at the sports section and talk about who’s going to win the league whilst Julia and Louise would talk about how the popular girl’s mum at gymnastics was so rude and would always drive a big car and that Esme or Lucy were just as good as that girl, I can’t remember the girls name and then Greg would ask what I thought about Manchester United or ask about work and I would say that work is hard because of the crash and he would laugh and say the government are bonkers for bailing out the bankers whilst his business struggled and Louise would pour more wine and Esme and Lucy would play in the garden and then it would rain because it always rained in Marsden and I would laugh and say yes the bankers are the real criminals and then we would eat dinner and Esme didn’t like Greg’s cooking because he liked spicy food and she didn’t like spicy food and she thought she was being poisoned and Lucy would say she loves spicy food like her Dad and I would tell Esme that she needs to try things she doesn’t like at first because you need to be polite and maybe you’ll like spicy food in the future,

We will shortly be arriving at Marsden. Please check the luggage racks and under your seats to ensure you have all your personal belongings before you exit the train.

I look at the Old Man as he presses the yellow button that’s a bit dirty now and isn’t that yellow with a grey button with two arrows that point outwards, and the Old Man boards the train followed by a man who has a tissue in his hands that looks like it needs to be put in the bin, he sits on the table opposite me and gets out his laptop I don’t like to work on the train because I’m not being paid and because looking at a screen makes me feel a bit sick, but he keeps coughing and I suppose flu season is nearly here and it’s raining a lot in Marsden so maybe he caught a cold,

This is the 8:25 TransPennine service to Manchester Picadilly, calling at Greenfield, Mosley, Staleybridge, and Manchester Picadilly. The next stop will be Greenfield

I like Marsden because John sometimes gets this train and I can talk to John about lots of different things and not have to worry about upsetting him as he’s very understanding and we only talk on the train because there’s no obligation for us to be friends as we just get the train together and we can talk about what we have packed for lunch and how good a good sandwich can make the day so much better, he usually has cheese and ham on buttered white bread and I usually have cheese and ham on unbuttered brown bread because I don’t like buttered bread and John is always dismayed as he says isn’t it dry? And I say no because the ham is juicy and if the ham is too wet then it absorbs some of the wetness and makes the cheese even better, yes that may be true he would say but brown bread is always too dry even if it is healthier, yes I suppose it is healthier and it can be dry especially if the bread is a few days old but that’s just what Julia buys and I don’t like to change habits, I see John and smile to say that there’s a free seat opposite me and he smiles back and sits down, his hair is very wet and mine has dried a bit, he sits down and I say did you just get out of the shower? He laughs and says no its raining, it always rains in Marsden I say, yes it does, and you didn’t bring a raincoat? No it wasn’t raining much when I left, but yesterday it was raining a lot and I got wet even though I was wearing a raincoat, yes and the train was delayed by 24 minutes, yes it was horrible, everyone was cramped into the shelter on the platform and it took ages for the button to light up so I got even wetter, yes I remember you didn’t look very cheerful, what have you got for lunch? I’ve got a ham and cheese sandwich on brown bread did you butter it this time he asks? No, I don’t like butter it gets stuck in my teeth and it means I can’t taste the ham if it’s buttered, yes that’s true but you don’t have to lather it in butter and then the juices from the ham mix with the butter and its delicious he says, yes maybe I could try a thin layer of butter but I would rather the juices from the ham mix with the cheese rather than the butter, yes I suppose that’s true he says, how are things at the council? It’s the same old same old, nothing really to report just planning and I’ve recently been asked to integrate the Bee network across Manchester, that’s not nothing, John says, yes, I suppose it’s not nothing, it’s the first step to nationalisation and capping the fare at two pounds will be good, that’s true, have you painted anything new lately I ask? Yes a few large paintings and several small ones, they’re selling quite well but nobody wants to buy paintings in Autumn, they always wait until Christmas or their birthdays, yes and I thank you for the advice you gave Esme, it’s no bother, he scratches his head and looks at his workbag, John’s breath smells a bit like stale beer and cigarettes and I think I suppose that’s because he’s lonely which is sad and I think I should probably invite him for dinner, why do you commute to Mosley for your studio? I ask, his eyes seem to know that I’ve asked this question before, yes I suppose it would be easier to work from home but it’s really hard to work from home since Frances passed, yes I’m sorry, it’s been five years and the office still smells of her perfume and I can’t bear myself to get rid of her clothes, so they just stay in the wardrobe, I should probably move but there’s just too many memories in our, in my house, and I don’t know how I’d feel about a stranger living there, sharing the same dust mites, I say I understand and I think yes I suppose it would be the same if Julia passed but I would want to move but I have Esme and she would help me, yes I think, I think she would help me, I’m sorry for bringing up Frances, it’s okay John says, yes, it’s okay, these things happen and even if you don’t think they’re going to happen to you, they do, yes, and I think, John pulls out his sketchbook from his brown leather shoulder bag that has drops of rain on it and he begins to doodle, and I look at what he drew before and see what looks like the train station

We will shortly be arriving at Greenfield, please check the luggage racks and under your seat to ensure you have all your personal belongings as you exit the train.

And I look out the window at the Lancashire moors, the heather is even more faded and it’s still raining and I see the Bald Man get up from his seat and check he has his personal belongings and walks down the aisle, he’s a bit sweaty which is odd as it isn’t that warm in the train and I think that I am hungry yes, I didn’t eat much breakfast and I only finished half of my coffee so I think I will get a biting on when I get to Manchester and after I’ve said goodbye to John at Mosley so he can go to his studio and paint some more paintings and maybe I should ask if I could come round and look at some of his paintings as I need to buy Julia a birthday present and I think she would like one of John’s paintings,

This is the 8:30 TransPennine service to Manchester Picadilly, calling at Mosley, Staleybridge, and Manchester Picadilly. The next stop will be Mosley

she liked it when I got her a painting for her fortieth, yes I think I’ll ask John if I can come round and he will offer to cook, he’s such a good cook and I will bring a bottle of wine and we will drink the wine and then maybe go to the Riverhead for a beer or two, hopefully I won’t see Greg there as he will just argue about how the government aren’t doing enough or that John’s paintings aren’t real art or that he prefers John’s older paintings when he used to actually paint landscapes clearly not this mismatch of lines and circles, and I think about the painting I got Julia for her birthday and how it had a brown circle that crossed a yellow blob, it wasn’t too big and hangs in the lounge, and John gave me a discount even though I insisted on paying full price because John’s paintings are usually worth quite a lot and sometimes you can see them in cafés in Hebden Bridge and he has had a few exhibitions in Leeds Gallery or they hang a few of his paintings but he said by selling it at a discount it’s his birthday present for Julia and I said yes I suppose you’re right, but he still got her a box of chocolates which was very kind, yes, how is Esme doing? She’s doing good, she’s in her second year in London, London is expensive John says, is she still painting? Yes, she’s studying fine art, yes I know John says, I remember you asking me to look at her portfolio and I thought she was going to be an amazing painter, well I hope that she can make enough to live on, yes that’s the goal John says, and I think about the painting that hangs in the lounge with the brown circle that crossed a yellow blob, I don’t understand what it meant but it was very pretty to look at and Julia said it was beautiful and Esme would say it’s cubist or expressionistic but I don’t know how to tell a painting is cubist as it doesn’t have cubes, instead I only know how to plan bus routes and talk to businesses and advertisers because busses are just movable adverts as well as public transportation and I think about how happy Esme was when she got her acceptance into the Art School and how happy Julia was and how dismissive Greg was as he said Art was a waste of time and that Esme is a smart girl and she should do something useful like engineering like his daughter, and I remember saying you can do lots of things with art, and he said sure you can become a painter and decorator and drive around in a white van and get sandwiches from those sandwich shops that sell burnt bread teacakes, but there’s a difference between being a painter and decorator and an artist I remember saying and he said sure, one will paint your wall and charge you a grand and the other will paint a wall and say it’s a rabbit in a snowstorm and expect a hundred grand, at least the painter and decorator is honest Greg would say, he knows his worth and then he would open another bottle of wine and his cheeks would already be red and offer everyone else at the table more wine, yes I don’t like Greg, I hear the man with the laptop cough and blow his nose into his tissue that he’s hidden under his sleeve and I ask John what paintings he’s working on currently, and he says he’s doing one about Easter Gate in Marsden because he used to go walking there with Frances and their dog at the time, and I say I love Easter Gate with its little bridge and how it splits into two and its almost as if the moors have split, yes he says, but he wants to paint them burning because it was so hot this summer that the moors were alight, yes I remember seeing the fire engines from my house and seeing the night sky light up with an orange hue, yes he said I wanted to capture that anxiety because the planet is burning so it’s a way to raise awareness about climate change, ironically I’m using oil for this painting, but it’s not the same oil I say, no you’re right it’s not the same oil, no I suppose it’s not the same oil, and I look at the moors and think about them on fire and all the fire engines that went to put out the fire, its got so bad that when you walk to Easter Gate there are huge plastic banners that instruct you not to use a barbeque as it might cause a fire and you’d think it would be common sense but then again Easter Gate is a beautiful place to have a barbeque you can put your beers in the river to keep cool and then the red water will rub the label off and you can cook some burgers and sausages and I could kiss Julia and watch Esme paddle and talk to friends about what a nice sunny day and what a nice place this is to have a barbeque on this nice sunny day, yes I suppose it’s a shame that you can’t do that anymore,

We will shortly be arriving at Mosley, please check the luggage racks and under your seat to ensure you have all your personal belongings as you exit the train.

John, I say

Yes, he replies he looks distracted

This is your stop, isn’t it?

Yes, it is, he closes the sketchbook he’s been drawing in

It’s Julia’s fiftieth soon and I want to buy her another one of your paintings if that’s okay, I wish you could’ve smiled when she opened it she was so happy and loved it so much and I remember Greg being dismayed by it and saying it was terrible Yes, Greg doesn’t have any taste does he, and of course, would you like to come over at some point and I can cook and we could have some wine, that would be nice, yes, I have a nice bottle of wine that we could have, that sounds nice he says, and then we could go to the Riverhead and have a few beers afterwards, yes that sounds good, I’ll bring some of my paintings back for you to have a look or if you want, you could come to my studio and chose some there? Yes both sound very good, thank you, anyway he says and he gets up I had better be off, this is my stop, yes I say it is, okay we’ll set up a date and I say that sounds good and John gets up and says excuse me to the woman who is sat next to him and goes towards the exit, as the train pulls into the station I see a brunette woman stand by the doors, her hands hovering by the button with the yellow circle and the grey button with the two arrows that point outwards, and as we begin to stop the lights flash and she presses it and several people leave the train and then some more people come on the train, there’s a few teenagers, and several men in suits and briefcases, and the carriage gets nosier and I look out the window at the sign that says Mosley, and I think I can’t remember the last time I was in Mosley and that I should go back at some point as there was a nice café that had hot beef sandwiches covered in gravy that were so delicious but you couldn’t eat with your hands as then your hands would burn in the hot gravy so you had to use a knife and fork which seems strange as it’s a sandwich but that hot beef sandwich covered in gravy was so delicious and I think, yes I think, I should go back to Mosley and order that hot beef sandwich covered in gravy and eat it with a knife and fork yes, I should,

This is the 8:37 TransPennine service to Manchester Picadilly, calling at Staleybridge, and Manchester Picadilly. The next stop will be Staleybridge.

and I think about the wet leaf that’s still stuck to my foot and how its commuting with me which is a small comfort and I remember how I used to kick leaves when I was younger, Will would kick leaves and they would be crunchy and he would kick them as he walked to school and how they would always be at the side of the road and then when it rained they would get horrible and stick to your foot and he would have to peel them offer before he came home and Mother would say, Will have you cleaned your boots I don’t want you to be dragging mud and leaves into my kitchen so he would have to check his feet and sweep them off and then he would go into the kitchen and Mother would be cooking, Mondays were always roast dinner leftover sandwiches, it would rotate chicken, beef, lamb, and the worst day would be Wednesday as it would be liver and onions and he hated the way liver slid down his throat and would almost squeak in his stomach and he would try and sneakily feed the livers to the dog, yes I still don’t liver, I will happily eat anything but not liver, it’s just not nice, imagine if I served liver and onions to Esme she would probably cry, she cried when I tried to make her eat prawns and got even more upset when I said they’re expensive and treat and she would say no they look like worms that swim in the sea, and I said they don’t look like that in the sea, but what do they look like in the sea Daddy, well, and I never showed her what they look like when they swim in the sea because they look rather grotesque like something alien and they look like grasshoppers if grasshoppers were larger and swam in the sea, she loves prawns now or she did, but then she stopped eating meat which is good as we should all probably stop eating meat as that’s what’s making the moors burn, I’ve been trying to cut down on my meat consumption as I will occasionally get a vegan sausage roll but even though it tastes good, they’re not golden-brown, they’re rather pasty looking and look like they need to go on holiday to Spain but they can’t because they’re not brushed with egg so they just look pale and pasty, yes maybe I should get a vegan sausage roll, and I should probably get a coffee too as I only finished half of my coffee this morning, yes I’ll buy a coffee before I go to the office and look at plans for how to nationalise the bus network, well not quite nationalise but bring it back under local control, and I look at the tracks and think about how many thousands of miles they must span, not just here but around the world and I remember reading about trains in China and how they always run on time and you always have a seat, which is very alien as sometimes you won’t get a seat, even if you’ve paid for it, and I think about maps, I have always liked drawing maps, when I was younger and I had wiped my feet clean I would go and sit by the kitchen table whilst Mother cooked and I would draw maps, they make sense, you go along the corridor and up the stairs, it makes life make sense and Will would steal tea bags and stain his maps to make them look old yes, he’d take the old tea bags from out of the teapot and then he’d put them on the paper, blotches here and there and then you’d have a treasure map and when Mother or Sister would ask him what’s the treasure? He’d say there isn’t any treasure, the map is a treasure, it’s the same reason he applied to study for Geography and now he works for the council and I suppose everyone who studies Geography ends up working for the council, it is one of those universal truths like Esme saying it always rains in Marsden, in fact when they were going for open days around the country she said she didn’t want to study Geography at university because everyone who studies Geography ends up working for the council and I laughed, yes that is true, I ended up working for the council and she said yes it’s just like how it always rains in Marsden, people who study Geography end up working for the council, and, yes, I suppose that’s true, yes, the Man in the Suit who got on the train in Mosley is talking on his phone and the Coughing Man is still coughing and wiping his tissue, that was hidden in his sleeve is snivelling, it’s the beginning of the flu season, and I look out of the window and it’s still quite rural and peaceful and I listen to the sound of the train and the sound of the wheels on the track and I think yes it is quite peaceful, train are like maps, but they’re easier to navigate, you get on and you get off, you don’t have to orientate yourself using a compass and look for symbols that tell you if a hill is going to be steep or if the vegetation there will likely be wet and boggy, Will loved to draw maps, and now he draws up bus routes and changes to Manchester’s infrastructure so he’s quite happy in a way because of that, even if it isn’t perfect, and as the train announces

We will shortly be arriving at Staleybridge. Please check the luggage racks and under your seat to ensure you have all your personal belongings as you exit the train.

I think about how annoying it is when there’s repairs on the railway and you have to take a rail replacement bus, especially because you want to listen to the train tracks and you’re on the motorway, its even more annoying because Staleybridge is the rail replacement hub, so you have to get a bus from Slawit, and it’s not even near Slawit station, you have to walk down to the main road, over the canal and river, and then go onto the main road, and it’s never clearly marked where the rail replacement bus is, and you can’t track where the bus is or if its late on your phone, you just have to hope that it stops or arrives, sometimes it is a coach and sometimes it is a bus that isn’t native to the area, and then you board, and they don’t check your ticket so you can just board without a ticket and buy a ticket from Staleybridge to Manchester because it’s cheaper and there aren’t any barriers at Staleybridge, and it’s not a smooth connection as you often have to wait 20 minutes or so and that means you have to get up earlier to arrive at work on time, yes and there isn’t a button to press to open the door, and even if there’s a button on the bus it doesn’t open the door, it tells the driver that you want to stop, but it isn’t following a normal bus route and it will always stop, yes it is very annoying and I don’t understand why they can’t do the repairs at night and often there’s nobody to help or direct you at the stations so you’re stuck there waiting for a bus that might or might not turn up, and if there is a person at the station they often don’t know the schedule, especially in Manchester, the rail replacement staff there are the most unhelpful, yes, and not many people get off at Staleybridge because most people are commuting to Manchester, and quite a lot of people get on so now the train is quite busy and I can’t really hear the sound of the train

This is the 8:42 TransPennine service to Manchester Picadilly, calling at Manchester Picadilly. The next stop will be Manchester Picadilly.

And I close my eyes and try to catch a few extra minutes of sleep, and think yes, soon I can get a coffee and have sometime to push me on until I have my ham and cheese sandwich at lunch and I know I shouldn’t buy a coffee or a snack but I’m quite hungry and I’m feeling rather tired, yes, I’m feeling rather tired, yes, and I watch the moors fade away and see rows and rows of houses of where the Mill Workers used to live construction sites of new high rise apartments that will house economic migrants from London, and yes I think about John and how it would be nice to go and see him soon but I can’t go this weekend as Louise and Greg invited us for dinner which will be nice as I’m hoping we can order a takeaway as that’s easier than them cooking as it’s often awkward when other people cook for you, and I look at the leaf on my foot, it’s come all the way from Will’s boot that was wiped on the step in front of Mother and Father’s house to secondary school, to receiving my A-Levels and to my student house, to the church where Julia said I do, to the hospital door when I drove so quickly to go and see Esme being born, to dropping Esme off on her first day of school, to dropping her off at university to me today on the 8:42 TransPennine service to Manchester Picadilly,

We will shortly be arriving at Manchester Picadilly, where this service terminates. Please ensure that you have all your personal belongings as you exit the train. Thank you for travelling with TransPennine today.

and I open my eyes, and think I’ve left the  leaf on the train and get up and say excuse me to the woman with the brunette hair who sat next to me at Staleybridge, and I walk towards the doors, there’s still a few minutes before I arrive at Manchester, so I check my watch and think I am very hungry and very much in need of a coffee as I only had time to finish half of my coffee this morning, yes, I’ll go to Greggs and get a coffee and a sausage roll and then I’ll press the yellow circle, that’s not very dirty inside the carriage, that has a grey button with two arrows that point outwards and I think yes soon I’ll be at work and after that I’ll be on the train home, but I don’t always press the big yellow circle that’s a bit dirty and isn’t that yellow anymore and a grey button with two arrows pointing outwards as it’s very busy when I leave work and I usually just try and get the first train I can and the platform is full of people and sometimes I see John on the way back, hopefully I can see him and ask him when he is free, yes that would be nice to see him, it’s been hard for him since Frances died and I think he doesn’t have a daughter and sometimes his breath smell of beer and cigarettes in the morning and I think it must be hard on him, yes, and I think I don’t know what I would do if Julia passed but I would have Esme and John doesn’t have anybody and I suppose that’s why his breath smells of beer and cigarettes sometimes, and I think that’s sad and I should invite him over sometime and Julia always liked John and then he could see where we placed his painting in the living room and I could show him some of Esme’s paintings and he would say that they’re very good, and I know he wouldn’t be just saying that to be polite and that he would be genuine, and the train begins to slow down, and I see there’s more and more people in the aisle and I’m glad I got up early as I don’t want to be waiting in the aisle because there’s not much room, no, there’s not much room in the aisles, and I put my finger next to the yellow circle, that’s not very dirty inside the carriage, that has a grey button with two arrows that point outwards, and the lights will flash red then green and it’ll beep at the same time and door will open and I can go and get a coffee and a sausage roll, and I hear the Coughing Man cough and sniffle into his tissue and I think there must be a flu going round, and the train stops so I press the grey button with two arrows that point outwards that have a yellow circle, that’s not very dirty inside the carriage, the lights aren’t lit yet, so I wait and then I hear a beep so I press the grey button again and leave the train and step onto the station, and I look at my feet and see the leaf still stuck to my foot and walk towards the ticket gates