 #1 (permalink) Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:36 am A short story - On the train |
|
|
A Short Novel – On the Train
Nightfall has arrived silently while a train roared loudly along the tracks. There were not many people riding it at this time. Six people were in one of the cars. Sitting on one side were three Asians, a guy in the middle and two girls next to him. They looked young and skinny, all carrying a backpack on their backs, in which seemed to contain a lot of books. Sitting across from them, were two Caucasian guys, one tall and the other big, dressing in oversized jean pants and T-shirts, and wearing baseball caps reversely. Tattoos were clearly seen on their white necks. Sitting at the back was a middle-aged Caucasian lady, who looked tired from her day in the office.
It was silent in the car. Besides the sound of the train, the Asians’ chatting was the only thing that could be heard, but no one else could understand for they were speaking their own language. However, they talked very gently, as if they didn’t want others to notice that they were not speaking English. Yet, they still caught the eyes of the two white guys, who constantly kept staring at those two girls. The Asians had noticed that, and they seamed nervous. All of a sudden, their conversations stopped. The girls looked down at their feet, while the Asian guy frowned, and looked straight back at those white guys with some anger on his face. But he could only get mocking smiles in return. He tried to look away. But it didn’t matter where he looked, he just couldn’t help noticing that there were eyes on them.
Right at this point, the tall white guy brought out a cigarette, a third of which was already burnt and gone. He put the cigarette in his mouth, looking at the doors. Seeing his action, somehow the Asian guy felt relieved. He had seen people who brought out cigarettes from their pockets in their school’s elevators. He assumed that the white guys were getting off very soon. However, the tall white guy lit up the cigarette and started smoking.
“Hey, no smoking on the train!” the lady yelled with a warning voice at the back. The tall guy put the cigarette out and back in his pocket, with a smuggling smile on his face, and said, “OK, OK, I’m sorry… I’m a Chinese.” “No, you’re not!” a stiff voice came from the Asian guy. The white guy looked at him and saw anger all over his face, and then he looked up slightly and said, “nee-how”. The Asian guy said what he just said without any thinking. In fact, he had never argued with anyone in English in his life before. He opened his mouth, but words just didn’t come out. That tall white guy was quite happy with his “Chinese” and the way he used it this time. When he was about to say something to embarrass this probable Chinese guy more, he heard him said, “Yes, that means ‘hello’. I can say hello too, in English, but I am not a Canadian or an English! I’m a Chinese.” Now, it was the tall guy’s turn to have an open mouth without anything coming out.
“Hah!” seeing this, the lady at the back couldn’t help her slight laughter. She looked at the Chinese guy with a praising smile. The Chinese guy didn’t seam to notice that. He flushed and was breathing somewhat heavily, and his voice was shaking a littlie bit. She understood that it would take him a lot of courage to talk to a native like that. Then, he continued, “Yes, we have some bad Chinese doing bad things. And that’s why others have bad impression about us. But, we admit what we do, and we don’t put our crimes on other people’s names!!” He talked faster and faster, louder and louder, and strangely, better and better. Those two white guys couldn’t say anything and got off the train at the next stop. |
|
Underdog
You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 18 Sep 2007
Posts: 54
Location: Toronto, Ontario
|
Kitosdad
