Improvised

The other day, on the bus, there was an elderly woman sitting across the aisle from me. In general, I do like to watch people, but she only caught my eye when she started nestling with some plastic. She had some strips of thin plastic which she twisted into a somewhat thicker string that she finally knotted into a circle.

She worked very deftly, but I could see no reason why she would do that, and on the bus to boot. From my experience with people watching, I can tell you that there are many very strange people on the loose. In cases as these, it is best not to stare. But she looked like a friendly and normal grandmother, so I kept glancing at her doings ever so often.

After she had finished two plastic circles, out came a small yellow towel. Most Japanese carry them, they are extremely handy in public bathrooms where very often, there are neither towels nor any other means to dry your hands. These days its even worse, when thanks to Covid19, most electric handdryers have been turned off to prevent spreading the virus. But I digress…

So, out came the towel and she folded in two opposite corners to form an (almost) rectangle. She then placed one of her plastic cirles of the third corner of ther towel and folded this in too. Now I was positively staring. What IS she doing, for crying out loud? Occupational therapy? On the bus?

She performed the same operation with the second circle and the fourth towel corner. I still didn’t get it. Only when she was trying to put it on did I realise: She was making a face mask!

They are still mandatory, okay: kindly requested, on public transport , but I hadn’t even noticed that she didn’t wear one until then. Unfortunately, my own stop was coming up, so I didn’t see her wearing her creation. The strings were a bit too short, so she needed to make adjustments. But just coming up with the idea on the fly, and to use what she had on hand – pure genius!

So yes, there are indeed lots of very strange people on the loose. But sometimes, it’s worth looking beneath the surface.