a crunch, a jerk, and then the green light

Friday, 12th of January, 2018
A towel from the glass fronted storage case. It is an old towel, rough. It is level to tell that in the dark, it was just on top of the rule. After showering, it dries the body well, and afterwards it is soft and damp.
Put on a fresh shirt today, yesterday's one is unusable after the hard work all day. Pictures of politicians. Pictures with a short life.
Leave the house for the dark alley. Just let the church there is the sound of a pigeon cooing It is warm, but it is a long way to spring yet. The bird is confused, perhaps.
Arrive at the bus stop. There is Dolores in the shelter, 'good morning", she is wearing the saddest of expressions. Ten steps farther on, at the bus stop sign itself, there is the bog cotton man. Wish him good morning too, and inquire after yesterdays cat. He says that the cat probably found another home today. An unfaithful animal.
But there are no ducks today.

Fifteen minutes later, at the railway station a crowd of Balkan builders, men with concrete dust and building dirt on their clothing. They jostle, and joke with The woman behind the counter. She speaks their language they are altogether a happy gone. The bald man serves coffee, it seems to be his pleasure to remember all the things that the customers usually order.
He never seems to get it wrong, and somehow, he manages to serve many customers at the same time, leaving nobody waiting.

The waiting room is quite empty, there is a free table by the window. Turn the back on the people in the cafe, look out across the tracks. A way over, in the distance, there is a small house with a big window. In this brightly lit frame a man in an orange overall is starting his days work, he is filling a form, or writing.

Start these notes in the station waiting room, as every day. The world closes in around the black book, the black pen and the laminated table.
A break from writing, look up. The little diesel train from Muehldarf is  in, blocking the view. It is time to go, down the passage, up the stairs,
The train to Munich is already in, it has started it's coupling manouver, advancing slowly, an inch at a time, so as to connect to the other part of the train as gently as possible. There is a crunch, a jerk, and then the green light on the door goes on.