I do it on the bus, on the street, and also when I’m being driven around. I even do it in restaurants, at the grocery store and in my backyard. I get some perverse satisfaction from it and feel guilt at the same time. Sometimes, no one suspects I’m doing it, and I sometimes get caught. I am a people watcher.
I like to observe and imagine what fascinating/boring lives my fellow humans enjoy. I glance at what the woman on the bus reads, week after week. She pulls out a bookstore bag from her purse, which is huge, by the way – I suspect her lunch, shoes and wallet also fit in there, as well as maybe a change of clothes – and I’m always intrigued by the titles she pulls out. She was reading something by a Japanese author two weeks ago, and is now learning Sanskrit, or something that looks a lot like it. I look at the forty-something guy who looks like a movie star and wonder what’s in his i-pod. I wonder why his right arm looks like there is no muscle in it, and find him very thin and pale. Maybe he’s sick. He smokes Camels and has an Elvis do. He dresses impeccably and never smiles. He looks lonely. I sometimes feel like sitting next to him and putting a hand on his arm. Maybe he would like that and he would smile a bit.
Through the little old lady’s grocery bag, I am surprised to see she buys fair trade coffee and sun-dried tomatoes. I am also surprised when she gets on the bus and refuses every seat offered to her with a big smile and holds on for dear life, grocery bags and purse flying all over the place. She bobs her head and looks really happy. I think she knows something we don’t. She has that mischievous smile, like a five year old who’s up to no good. And she also leaves the grocery store weekdays between 7:15 and 8:00. Sometimes she has grocery bags two days in a row, sometimes she has one of these net bags with some clothes in it and no groceries.
I don’t know why I like it so much. I think of every little spy game I play as an exercise in creativity, because all by themselves, with no effort on my part, several life stories unfold before my eyes and I collect details about them. I piece together facts and learn things. I worry when the little old lady isn’t there. And relieved when she’s there the next day. I smile when I see the girl with her boyfriend on the bus, because I can tell they’re in love. When he isn’t with her on the bus and she talks to him on her cell phone, she blushes and smiles. When he is there, he has a spark in his eye (probably from all the glitter she wears, mind you) and looks at her like a shy teenager.
I wonder if someone on the bus also spies on me.
Oh – complete change of subject. The winner of my easy/lazy contest is Tortuga - she won three Squibbits! The quote was from Lord of the Rings.
Have a great weekend, my preciouses.
