Stay In School

As I step onto the carriage I can hear her clearly speaking. An older lady, well older than me anyway and most likely in her late 30’s or early 40’s but she looks much older and her skin is well worn. She is wearing a tight fitted black and white striped zebra patterned dress, with old dirty black boots, and old dirty black hair, and an old dirty black scarf.

“I’m only tellin’ ya ‘bout it ‘cause I used to get bashed by me boyfrien’ when I was about your age, en I din’t do nuffin’ ‘bout it for too long a time, ya know?” she says screechily to a young girl sitting on a seat near her, in much cleaner and brighter clothes.

“I’m just tryin’ ta warn ya is all”.

The girl responds quickly and sternly, “Look lady, it’s not my problem, okay?”.

“I was only after two minutes of ya time mate, I’m just tryin’ ta ‘ave a conversation”.

“Yes and I don’t want to know about it. Please stop talking to me”.

“I was only wantin’ two minutes of your time to explain this to ya”.

“Well I don’t want to know about it, and it isn’t my problem” she says even sterner than before, after which she quickly stands up and walks through to the next carriage in a huff.

“I just wanted to talk to ya. Ya bloody rude little mole”.

As the train has not yet departed, people are still walking into the carriage. After about 20 seconds of the dirty woman entertaining herself, three young men of about eighteen years of age walk on to the train and sit in front of the dirty woman.

“Ow’re ya goin there boys? You on school holidays or what?” – By this point the train had begun moving.

“Hi, no we’re just on our way to uni” replies one of the boys.

“Awh righto, you goin to Swinburne College or somefin’?”

“Yep”

“Awh right, and how old are ya?”

“Ah, we are all 18-“

“- I’m almost 19 though” says one of the other boys.

“Awh yeah, that’s cool. D’ya smoke pot? Ya don’t look like the type to smoke pot”

“No I don’t”

“Yeah I din’t fink so. I bet ya don’t smoke cigarettes either. Do ya drink?”

“Um, yeah I sometimes drink”

“That’s good mate, that’s how ya wanna be doin’ it. Sounds like you’re doin everything right in life. Are these blokes ya hang out with alright or what?” She says questioningly.

“Haha, yeah they’re good guys”

“Oh, well that’s really good mate. Keep doin that and you’ll go far in life. I never went to college myself, so that’s good you’re doin’ that though, I dropped out when I was only 15 cause I got pregnant. I’m gonna go back soon though ya know, and do something good with me life, ay”.

“Yeah… that’s a good idea”.

“Yeah I fink so mate. Anyways, good talkin to ya guys, stay in school hey”.

“Uh yeah, thanks… bye”.