The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
Among The Many Things I Can’t Say in Hungarian
St. Matthias Church, Budapest, Hungary.
In a Budapest shopping mall, I spot a boy with one bleached white eyebrow. The other is dark like his hair, like his eyes, like his gaze. I begin to smile at him, and he doesn’t like that greeting, as he wants to seem tough. I grin anyway. He sniffs, looks down, walks on.
We run into each other at a bottleneck by the exits. An elderly couple in motorized wheelchairs have parked for a long kiss just before the sliding glass doors. They stop everyone’s movement. Shoppers crinkle their bags of goods, look up from their cell phones. No one says anything. After a reflex of annoyance, the shoppers realize what is causing the hold-up, then sigh and feign polite impatience while moving around the graying lovebirds.
White eyebrow boy keeps seeing me looking at him. I raise one eyebrow and he finally laughs. What a joy to navigate a foreign place without actually having to speak.
–Budapest, Hungary.
No, I don’t speak Hungarian.
(Lower right: Sack. For groceries.)
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
Haha what a cute story. Communicating without words with a stranger can certainly brighten your day 🙂
Agreed! And the world is full of strangers! How lucky we are. 🙂
Words are not always necessary … or even required. But I rather fancy smiles are -:)!
Smiles have taken me through many a foreign land. I’m grateful that this tool for navigation is always at the ready!
A lovely tale!
Thank you! I appreciate that you stopped by!
Such a great and cute story……………….
What a fun little encounter. It’s funny when you connect with a complete stranger just from raising an eyebrow. 🙂
~ 🙂 That’s supposed to be a raised eyelid! I know it won’t come out looking like one, but I had to try anyway. Loved your humor here and interplay among peoples.
Hehe, I get it! Nice! I appreciate the comment. I think if I hadn’t seen that eyebrow, it would have been an ordinary afternoon. 🙂
words can be awkward at times but expressions seem to say the right thing; you have a great idea for interesting stories