Tonight was one of those nights that the air hits you like a wall after you step out of your freezing office for the day. The air was so thick it was hard to breath. I was instantly sweaty, instantly tired, and instantly annoyed. I slinked onto the platform bench and excitingly slipped my hand into my bag and produced my latest weakness… The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I fan out the pages and skim my fingers across the edges inhaling that wonderful fragrance paperback novels give off. I’m instantly unaware of everything around me and absorbed again in 1970’s Afghanistan. I look up when I feel the rush of air across my face as the Brown Line pulls into the station.
On board the train I rest my back against the windowed wall that divides the entryway from the sitting passengers. As any responsible city commuter does, I survey my fellow train passengers when my eyes come to rest on a familiar gray-green paperback tucked under an arm of a middle-aged man in a blue dress shirt. The man stands directly across from me and I’m filled with a mixture of childish excitement and reserve. I manage to fumble out something like “book-same” followed by a unnecessary nervous giggle. Seeing confusion spread across his face I instantly hold my book up and feel the smile stretch my cheeks. His face… priceless. Unadulterated excitement.
There was an explosion of animated, childlike enthusiasm between us. We started talking over each other, interrupting one another unable to contain our composure wanting to express our impressions of the book, how we couldn’t put it down, how it was one of the best novels we’d read in some time. He was much further into the novel than me and I could see the anguish on his face as he tried to edit himself. He kept repeating “I won’t give anything away… so much happens!”
After heated conversation and two stops on the train we smiled at each other and dove back into our books. When my stop came and I slowly reacquainted myself with where I was I glanced up at my fellow bookworm and we both whispered “enjoy” with a meaningful smile. I stepped off the train and reentered that sticky, hot air this time blissfully unaware.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
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1 comments:
Love this stranger thing and miss the trains in Chicago - weird, no?! :) I also have read the book, along with Alex and it's on my top 5 for sure!!! We both read it while we were in Chicago (irony?!) and just bought his new book titled "A thousand splendid suns" but have yet to open it - I have too much studying with my class, but it will be yet another favorite, I'm sure. "Kite runner" is an intense book, yet beautifully written - enjoy, my friend! Much love from MN.
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