The Man on the road

Before coming back to the UK, i spent a lot of time with my mom. We always wandered around, looking for good things to eat. On this particular day, we were at Chinatown (again). After having lunch at Amoy Street Food Centre (which was quite deserted), we stopped off at the area where my grandmother used to live. She bought random buns from this newly opened chic looking bakery, and after that we bought some soup packs for me to bring here.

I remember chit chatting with the lady boss, taking her advice on which brand to buy, politely declining her promotional efforts to get more of other products. I remember watching her colleagues pick out chinese herbs, reaching into those little cupboards behind the counter, grabbing a handful of this, a handful of that.. placing them on the traditional chinese scale and then packing them in paper. I remember the smell.. a light, salty flowery scent. I don't know how to describe the smell of herbs. It was good though.

I think we ran out of things to look at cus most of the neighbourhood was under development, so we hopped on the car back home. Once turning out of the car park, we found ourselves amid throngs of cars.

That was when I saw him.

He was working. I don't remember what he looked like except he had long curly hair under his safety helmet. He stood on the side of the road, grasping a traffic sign, directing the slow moving traffic while his colleagues carried out roadworks behind the barrier. He had a really bright smile as he waved cars along. His friend beside him didn't seem too thrilled like him.

Something about his smile made me happy. It was so infectious, that smile. He caught my eye and I gave him a bright grin, with a happy wave thrown in. I'm not sure if anyone else had done the same thing since he was there, but he returned my gesture with an even brighter smile. Our car was still in the wait, so I didn't know where else to look after our exchange. It was a funny awkward situation. I think he felt the same.

The light turned green. My mom put the car into gear and we slowly started moving. We both looked at each other, at the same time and probably for the last time, and smiled while waving goodbye.

He made my day.