Man on the Sheppard platform

As usual on my evening commute, I had my nose buried in a book, lost to the world, while waiting for the Sheppard train. In my peripheral vision I noticed a man approach me with a note in-hand. Years of navigating through droves of panhandlers and street urchins have developed an instinctive, doctrined reflex that sprung into action and curtly dismissed the man before he he encroached my personal space. I felt my head nod ever so lightly and in a fraction of a second the action was complete. The reasoning part of the brain arrived at the scene of the crime like so many TV shows a few moments too late and immediately radioed for backup, Guilt. Guilt arrives instantly and boy does it do a really throrough job. I was ashamed. What if this man was impaired and just wanted directions ? What if he was mentally challenged and wanted some help to get back home ? The note might have been given by his caregivers to use incase he was lost. Guilt, like a good defence lawyer, takes you apart at the seams and questions your sanity. I flipped the book closed and looked around for the man. I could probably walk up and find out what he wanted to know. The terminal was filling up with the evening commuter crowd and the man had disappeared.

I combed through the crowd while the train pulled in to the terminal and the sea of people rapidly moved in to filled it up. I was still at the platform, when the doors chimed and closed. I walked back to the bench to where I was sitting, annoyed at myself, one for not finding the man, the other for missing the train. As I watched the compartments slowly roll by, filled with tired bodies on their way back home, I saw a man get up from his seat and approach a fellow passenger with a note in hand. Last I saw before the scene passed out of view was the passenger handing the man a Loonie*....

* Loonie: The Canadian 1 dollar coin (commonly called Loonie) is a gold-coloured, bronze-plated, one-dollar coin introduced in 1987. It bears images of a common loon, a well-known Canadian bird, on the reverse, and of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse.