A Smile to Strangers

You know when you see someone doing something crazy? Not scary, but one of those everyday occurrences that make you smile and it sticks with you the rest of the day. Like, when you see a man walking into a fountain, or a girl hailing a cab wearing one shoe and holding the other. Occurrences where you wish you knew the whole story but never will because they happen so fast and they are too far away? This project got me thinking about a time when I was that person, and I hope I made at least one stranger smile.

The summer after high school I traveled to Europe for a few weeks with my girlfriend. We dated for most of school and this was our first big trip together. Our plan was to stay a few days in London, then fly to stay with our friend who lived in Germany, then travel to Paris for a few days, then finally meet up with my sister and her boyfriend who lived in Plymouth, England.

The first leg of the trip went swimmingly; we found our hostel without any trouble and were pleased to find it was on the second level of a friendly little pub. We saw the sights, hung out with our new roommates, and had a wonderful time. It was on the morning of our flight out when we ran into real trouble.

We had to leave around five-thirty because our flight to Germany was at eight. So we gathered up our massive hiking-backpacks and smaller bags, locked the door behind us and left our keys in our room like our lovely innkeeper told us. Little did we know the ground floor was locked until seven when the first employees come in to work. Now when I say locked I mean chains and padlocks. So my girlfriend and I were stuck in this tiny 5 x 5 room between the hostel and the pub. We didn’t have our keys to get back up stairs nor did we have bolt cutters to get out through the pub. However, there was a third door. But we were both uneasy about using it for one major reason. Painted on this door with enormous red letters were the words USE ONLY IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, ALARM WILL SOUND.

I looked from the door to my girlfriend who immediately began to shake her head furiously, but then realizing the only other option was to wait until someone let us out, she came to terms with what we were going to do. This was after all, an emergency. We held hands and counted to three then lunged out the door into London’s early morning light and not-so-fresh air. The alarm blaring behind us, we started laughing, believing we were free… until we realized we were in a fenced-off courtyard complete with razor-wire. We started to slow down, trying to figure out how to deal with this new situation when a truck entered the lot, opening the gate. Instantly, still holding hands, we ran straight for the gate still laughing, Luck was in our favor because the gate closed just as we stepped on the other side.

Every time I try to remember this, I think of the person rising early, not particularly looking forward to work, groggily sipping their coffee as they look out their apartment window to see two figures with comically oversized packs, holding hands, running like the dickens out a fenced-off lot, and I hope we brought a smile to their face, brightening their otherwise routine day.

-Three Feathers