how it came about that i lost my lunchbox in the train station: -- saw empty seat swooped down on seat -- set lunch box down on seat complacently -- saw train pulling in leapt to feet -- jumped into train watched doors shut -- watched doors shut espied lunchbox on seat through doors -- !!

there is something of the gerald c. potter dramas in this, i particularly remember him losing a briefcase and recalling "only a peculiar thump at the time, not even a sickening thud." no one likes to be late for work, but i got off at the next station (somerset) and caught the next train back -- the lunchbox was gone by then, as i feared it would be. in these days where the smrt plays terrorism videos on trains and puts up large posters condemning fluffy teddy bears of innocent expression as treacherous containers of explosives, what hope did my poor lunch box have in a conscientious country like ours? i threw me on the mercy of the station master, who said, hmm, a lunch box? lifting it from the lost and found drawer. that's mine that's mine! i cried, adding, in case they challenged me to prove ownership, that i would tell them what was in it. this would ordinarily have been a foolish thing to say, because ordinarily i only find out what my mother has packed me when i open the box at lunchtime. quite by chance though i had the previous night packed my own lunch for a change, and thus rattled off confidently: "pumpkin-spinach-udon-roast chicken-water apple-and-guava!" in exchange for which i got a funny look and my lunch box.