31 May 2013

From the window

I live on a busy road in Brighton. My front window looks out over the road and beyond the blocks of flats, I can see the sea. It's awesome. At some point every day, I stand in my bay window and watch the street, unseen, unnoticed by the people below, which is fine with me, I'd rather keep myself to myself. The street is full of shops and interesting people, why would you look up?

Just now, however, I was closing the heavy sash window with a loud rattle, and a guy on the street heard the noise and looked up. A cool, long haired, indie muso type (thinking about it now, he looked a bit like Eric Balfour). He met my eyes and, unlike most people, didn't look away. So I smiled. A bit. He smiled. A bit. And gave me a little wave. So I gave him a little wave back. He didn't stop walking and after this two second exchange, he looked back at the street and I turned away from the window.

We'll never see each other again, and even if we did, would we remember? But that little connection, that unexpected moment of 'hello', it made me smile :)