Creative Burst - There Was This Guy on a Train, Part 2

If she does appreciate smoking then her reaction is no doubt a result of some lack of confidence on her part, or perhaps it is simply that she has decided that he is "not her type" simply by sight. This of course is preposterous because as he knows no one knows their exact type just by looking at someone else. Basing a judgment on a first impression which may or may not -- and in this case it is a may not -- include any kind of verbal exchange is improper social, as well as psychological etiquette. She's not worth his time, he decides.

So rather than try to keep any spark of hope alive in this brief non-verbal exchange, he rises from his seat, tucks the cigarette neatly back into the pack, and makes his way to the dining car for a light snack. This is the most prudent time for a snack since he is sure that the train ride to B will be at least another X hours, and with the predicted weather -- a call for P with a chance of Q -- he knows that it might even be later than expected before he gets to B.

There are three other passenger cars between his and the dining car. The first one is loaded to the gills with families of all shapes and sizes. Children and parents alike try to talk over one another, none of them really succeeding. But the determination in all the faces proves to him that it is a struggle worthy of some reward, even a minimal amount of unrequited attention.

He passes through the door to the second car. This, to his immediate surprise, is filled with rows and rows of caged animals piled on top of one another at least three sometimes four and five high. His olfactory senses are immediately blasted with the most revolting, overpowering stench. He pauses for a moment in front of the cage of ferrets and turns. There it is, the smallest rodent in the cage leaning against the door almost willing him to come closer. Daring him. It seems to curl its little lips up. Smiling. Greedily. Then it speaks in a voice he finds eerily familiar.