There’s a guy I walk past every day on my way to my Window seat by the Bay- let’s call him Mr Stern. I think he’s pretty old because he has snowy white hair, but otherwise he’s pretty upright and strong.
When I was about 19, I started noticing people grinning at me: “Is it something I’m doing??” I asked my sister. She was going through a particularly “emo groupie muso phase” and life was pretty intense. She rolled her eyes: “No man, god you’re such a nerd. You have a happy resting face. Duh” and kept listening to Muse on her CD player that spanned half her desk.
Anyway, I’ve walked past him for the best part of three months now, and every time it’s been the same. He looks at me, makes eye contact and then looks forward. No smile to be cracked. No nod. No good morning. Meanwhile, I’m rolling along with my accidental half-smile and my active wear, swinging my arms: oh well!
Then, something shifted.
Three weeks ago, Mr Stern and I made eye contact at the very last second as we walked towards each other from opposite directions. I swung my arms and half smiled, expecting zero response back. He strode up, face set and looked to be moving on by. Then: a blink and you’ll miss it smile—or more accurately the left half of his mouth curling upwards into a half-smile.
For some reason, a tiny part of my heart high-fived the next person I saw. Cracked him!
And then? Well, every other time I’ve seen him since, the half-smiles became more and more confident, and today he full smiled and murmured: “Good morning”. I grinned a full toothy grin and that was that.
Way to make my Friday, Mr Stern 🙂
