Found a seat!
I'd just finished a days work and was on a busy commute back home on a train that is regularly packed. I'm lucky if I even get space on the floor and it takes a good hour usually, but is always fully seated by the time it gets to my stop.

Ambling down the aisles after it arrives, I was in shock to notice that there was a free seat at one of the table boothes and quickly made haste towards it, not questioning why it should be empty.

As I sat down quite relieved, I realised why it had been vacant. Sat opposite me was a 16/17 year old lad with down syndrome. Not about to get up and lose my seat, and not thinking much of it anyway, I stay put and mess about on my phone a bit, trying to give an air of someone not wishing to be bothered. It didn't work.

"You alright" he said, looking over at me. As he said it I saw the various other passengers around the table look away or out of the window. Anywhere else really.
"Yeah I'm pretty good, you?" I offer back.
"Good too...Do you like sausages?"

I talked with him for about 5 or 10 minutes about how I preferred bacon really and was never a big sausage lover, which he couldn't understand because he loved them. I ravelled off the various merits of bacon against the sausage and so forth, but didn't win him over. It was clearly obvious throughout this that many people around us were eaves-dropping and it was beginning to get slightly awkward.

The conversation dies down and I pretend to go to sleep, like you do, so as not to be bothered anymore really. I probably sound quite horrible but it was a hard day and I'd rather not be bothered. I thought it was genius.

It seemed to do the trick, me closing my eyes, because he didn't bother me after that.

Anyway, about 10 minutes in to my 'snooze' my phone starts ringing. Can I ignore it? Could I just pretend I'm in such a deep sleep that I can't hear my ring tone or feel the vibration? Of course I fucking can't. So I answer it.

It's my fucking brother. I forget what he wanted, but it couldn't have been important, otherwise I'd know now what it was. I hang up and look across the table. He's looking right at me and now knows I am awake. He springs back into action:

"You're muscly." He says, completely out of the blue. I'm not really that muscly at all, but he appears to think so.
"I like to keep in shape" I say in cliché.
"Do you want an arm-wrestle?"

It takes some moments for the words to be fully comprehended in my head. A fucking arm-wrestle?! I stare blankly at him for a moment before politely declining but he persists further. I protest, trying to convince him I'm not muscly and it wouldn't be worth it.

I can't believe I'm about to tell you this, but I did actually arm-wrestle the lad. He was very insistent and I thought it'd be over quickly and then I could get on with the rest of the journey. That and it was fast becoming a scene.

So we get down to the arm-wrestle and it soon becomes apparent that I'm not going to win. I'm going to be beaten at an arm-wrestle by a 17 year old lad with down-syndrome on a packed commuter train in front of everyone.

I start feeling a bead of sweat run from my hairline and look up at my opponent. He's hardly exerting himself AT ALL. On top of this, he then starts laughing, quite manically and my hand begins to get ever closer to the table, trembling as it does so due to my obvious exertion.

Just as he's about to hit it down on the table and win, he lets go and laughs again to himself. I look round the train and notice a fair few people turn their heads as our eyes meet. They'd seen it all...

Anyway, it all went alright after that and was generally one of the more interesting commutes I've had. And I got to do it sitting on a nice chair...and technically, I didn't lose the arm-wrestle.
( mike woz ere 7442200 & 7696970 getter, Thu 29 May 2008, 23:33, 5 replies)

This should win.
I think you're lovely!
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 29 May 2008, 23:52, closed)

You learnt the hard way
That people with Downs are a hell of a lot stronger than they look
(Sir Tainley Barking Ezekiel 23:20, Thu 29 May 2008, 23:53, closed)

Your a nice person
:)
(The_artist_formally_known_as_alz0r, Fri 30 May 2008, 7:00, closed)

If you're gonna nab stories...
Don't nab 'em off Karl Pilkington. That's just sad.
(The Disillusioned Starburst, Sat 31 May 2008, 13:49, closed)

Eh?

( mike woz ere 7442200 & 7696970 getter, Sat 31 May 2008, 15:33, closed)