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Smile! Its a Charity :)

He pressed seventeen. Two floors below, I noted. I took my place, straightfaced and cold, on the left at the back and leaned myself against the wooden railing. He stood prependicular to me, an arms length away to my right.

As the door closed, I wondered where his two friends were. The three of them, big, round and brown lived in contrast in this middle class family oriented environment. Their foreign tongue and weather beaten appearance, grace of their blue collared jobs, did them no favour in our silently discriminating society. Their presence was unwelcome and a failure of the capitalist system of rewarding whoever had the money to pay the rent.

Then I saw those words, stretched out on those unshapely chests. They stood out in big white lettering against a grass-green background, like an advertisement for Nike Golf,

Smile! 
Its a Charity :)

It made me smile within. Then it spread to my body, like an itch. I had to say it, but I did not know him. And for what purpose? He was going to get off soon anyway. But still.

"N...Nice shirt", I stammered, with a polite smile thrown in to accentuate my point.

He was taken by surprise. He first seemed not to have caught it, then as if he did not understand it. But he did, though now he looked like he did not know how to respond. So he did the natural thing anyone would do to respond. His faced relaxed and the corners of his lips curled upwards. He smiled, rather foolishly, like an boy, pleased, but embarrassed. Then he muttered "Thank you".

The next few second of the journey up, either he nor me knew how to proceed. Though that block of ice in between had melted, vaporised into thin air, like that intial trace of repulsion in my mind. In its place was a mutual warmth and respect shared between two men returning home after a week of slogging. 

The lift slowed to a stop and its heavy doors mechanically slid open. One last exchange of looks, a slight nod and he was gone. I pressed the door close and they slid back together again to its next destination, two floors up.

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