There is a lot of work going on on the tracks of lines M13, M4 and 12. The 12 drove normally until recently and was often fuller than before. Many, like me, may have avoided the buses and changed their tram route to get to Alexanderplatz, for example. There are many buses that run, so many that in their rows they sometimes look like a bus train. But you just have to walk more, cross more traffic lights.
Despite the new route, the 12 is almost full on this day as well. A father and his two children sit in the last two empty seats. To be more precise: the smaller of the two is already seated. Like a baby monkey, it hangs on its stomach on Papa’s chest, its legs drawn up like in a stretcher. I can’t see his face. The other boy, who may be five or six years old, gets the seat by the window. But he does not look out, but dreams of some point behind me. Maybe it’s not a point, but an imagined landscape, even a country. Yes, it seems as if the person has gone away behind these eyes. Far away.
They are big eyes, very big and very round and very brown. I’m about to fall in, I think, and that I wouldn’t stop the fall. Whatever is behind it instead of the absent boy, it can’t be a bad thing. But something that you were happy to see on your return. What you tell others about. Maybe then he’ll be back and maybe he won’t wear a mask anymore.
It’s one of those rare moments when they bother me. Really hurt. Because I’m curious about his face. Incidentally, also on the father’s, who also has very beautiful eyes and the same thick hair. I force myself not to stare but to read. But when the three of them get out, I can’t help but contort a little. Let everyone think I’ve fallen in love. I am a little bit. Into the eyes of a strange little boy. Unfortunately, I can’t see their faces because they’re headed straight for a deal.
On this day I perceive the masks around me very intensely. Try to mentally complete faces. Think of several occasions when I and several others were allowed to come together without a mask. And I’m glad they still keep me busy. I don’t want to get used to guessing parts of my mouth. Neither on the tram nor anywhere.