Beneath The Dark Glass...

With my heavy suitcase in hand, I jumped two steps at a time down the escalator. The red light was blinking already and the beeps were sounding. I just managed to scrape in, as the doors of the MRT closed in behind me.

Instantly, I was engulfed by a stream of cool air and I felt a sudden exhilaration. It put a smile on my face and I looked around. There was some space near the opposite door. A familiar-looking man stood against that door, facing away from me. I moved over to his side and smiled at him.

It was then that I realized that there was a woman crushed between him and the glass door. My gaze averted instantly but fell upon a grumpy old woman nearby, who glowered at me with a disgusted expression. My smile vanished.

Once a few people alighted at the next station, I got a seat. On one side of me sat the grumpy woman and on the other side, a young man dozed with white earphones plugged into his ears.

Since the objects on either side were not of much interest, I stared straight ahead. It was then that my eyes met with the sight of the pink pram.

There was a lady who sat in the row opposite mine. Beside her sat a man with black, cooling glasses and an impish smile. And it was in front of these two people, that the pink pram lay parked. From the bright smiles that the people in the opposite row gave in the direction of the pram, I deduced that in it must be a very pretty baby. I could not see its face though.

The man was in a cheerful mood and was making smiling faces at the baby. The lady was not smiling though, which puzzled me.

I watched as I had nothing else on mind. The man began making signs to the baby. Signs of numbers. One, two, three, four. He was showing his fingers close to the baby’s face and smiling all the time. With his cooling glasses and his smile, he seemed almost a Hollywood hero.

But something seemed to be troubling the woman, who sat beside him. She smiled occasionally whenever the man looked at her. But the rest of the time, she stared at the baby in a worried mood or stared away.

Soon, the man got bored of making gestures with his hands. He began to make different faces. Then he pulled out a key chain from his bag on the floor and swung it in front of the baby. It had a cute little teddy bear dangling at its end. Soon, he snatched some other toy-like thing from within his bag and started displaying it happily to the baby.

Thus, I spent around ten minutes looking at the sight of a father cajoling his young son.

Yes. That was what I thought. I had imagined that the man and the woman were husband and wife and that the baby was their child.

But when the MRT reached the next station, the mother stood up, smiled at the man and said, “I am getting down here sir.”

The man immediately smiled back and nodded.

The mother wheeled the pram around and pushed it towards the door. The man waved goodbye to the baby.

Just as the lady pushed the pram out through the open door, I caught a glimpse of the baby. It was quite fair and dressed in a neat, little blue clothe. Its right thumb was stuck in its mouth. But that was not what held my attention. It was the eyes. The baby’s eyes were closed peacefully in sleep. A small cap that it wore was pulled half-way over its eyes.

I was confused. Was it to this sleeping baby that the man was making all his gestures? Couldn't the man see that the baby had been asleep? He should have unless...

I looked back at the man. He was sitting erect with that same smile fixed on his face. He had now placed his bag on his lap and sat hugging it. He was looking around casually as he hummed some tune to himself. His right hand still clutched at the toy-like thing which I now realized to be a white, foldable walking stick.

It was the kind of stick that the blind used to feel their way around.

I looked at the stick and then at his black glasses. They were too dark and completely veiled his eyes.

The beeps sounded and the red light began to flash. A fat woman walked in hurriedly just as the doors closed softly. She rushed towards the seat where the mother had sat earlier. As she took her seat, she accidentally stepped over the man’s foot. The foot of the man with the black cooling glasses.

“Oops… Sorry sir. I was in a hurry”, she said in an apologetic tone, staring down at his feet.

“I could see that”, replied the man, looking at the fat woman with a mystic smile and continued his humming. His other hand placed the folded-up stick within his bag and zipped it close.

The MRT moved on…