How can you listen to music while you read?
Lit Up: Mad March Microfiction
“So I’m in the train, heading back home, and I’m reading a book and listening to music… you know, as I always do.”
She smiles and takes a sip of wine.
“Then this guy sits down opposite of me, one chair to the left. Like, we both had legroom, you know? And I see that he keeps moving his hands and lips a little, but not really to the beat of music… It rather seems like he’s talking to himself… And then he looks to me. Or rather, he looks at my crotch…
M-hmm, needless to say, I got extremely uncomfortable. I started thinking, come on man, not cool…”
She frowns now.
“But he’s smiling and still moving his hands, like questioning something… then he tries to talk to me. And my mind goes mad. Do I react, or do I pretend I don’t hear him? I still have earphones on, so I try reading his lips, but I can’t, so I take one out…
He asks me, ‘How can you listen to music while you read?’
Yeah, you’d think that’s a bad attempt at starting conversation, huh? And then it’s like, should I look annoyed, or should I smile and answer? But he reacts faster than me.
‘Is it classical music?’, he asks.
I think, great, now I have to react, just roll your eyes, no, don’t, what if he just means well, but no, he might misunderstand your niceness… I keep it simple and say ‘No… but it has no text’
So he smiles, nods understandingly, and looks away… That was it! Isn’t it sad? He just wanted to know. I assumed only bad, before I even heard his first word…”
She shrugs, smiling.
“Yeah, well… You were simply aware of your own madness for a second.”
