Springtime in Melbourne – Pia Emery

Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS writer.

Inner city Melbourne has an on going love affair with Plane Trees. Their thick trunks and upward reaching branches curl like fingers around power lines and wooden telegraph poles.

The Old Woman sat despondently in her seat, on the Number 96 tram. She had taken this route most of her long life. She always loved looking out at the swinging leaves of the Plane trees as the tram sped past.

Another Melbourne windy day.  She hated the wind.  It messed with her hair and her heart. Today she was tired.  Today she felt old. She had cut marks on her palms from the Aldi shopping bags she carried. Her hair had decided it didn’t want to stay within the multitude of pins carefully placed 5 hours ago and she realised she would be opening her front door again, to an empty house.

She looked around in dismay at the youths on the tram.  All those young people with bad posture – hunched shoulders and stretched necks – looking at their phones whilst life whizzed by.

But the quiet, well dressed Asian man in the corner caught her eye.

He was crying.

She had never witnessed an Asian person crying before.

The Asian man kept to himself – as tears streamed down his face.  He kept his sunglasses on and made no eye contact.

It moved her.

As the tram approached the Old Woman’s stop – she walked towards the Asian Man.

“You’re alright love.  I know it’s hard – but you must keep going.  I’m sure things will turn around” she said. The Asian man looked at the small, white, shrivelled lady in front of him. He could see a hard life in her eyes.  Touched, he took her hand as a lifetime of polite upbringing kicked in.

“ You are right” he said “it is hard, but the kindness of strangers and moments like these make it better”

The Old Woman smiled as she walked away from the tram stop, knowing she had made a connection.

The Asian man vowed never to be caught out not taking a hay ever tablet ever again.

FIN

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