A silent couple entered the outerwear store and looked around for a few minutes.
The woman held up a men's jacket. “This one's nice.”
The man didn't look. “Eh.”
The woman noticed that the man didn't look. “You didn't look.”
The man looked. “Yes I did. I didn't like it.”
The woman held up a different jacket. “How about this one?”
The man looked. “Nah.”
The woman held up a third jacket. “Look at this one.”
The man didn't look and didn't say anything.
A short, relatively quiet argument ensued. (Something along the lines of: You didn't even look-Yes I did-No, you didn't-I don't want a new jacket-You need one-These jackets suck-These are very high quality-They're expensive-They'll last for a long time-I don't want a damn jacket-Fine, freeze to death.)
After the argument, the couple resumed silence and approached the register with the second jacket.
They remained in silence on the subway train home. A homeless man got on at 57th street, carrying three or four plastic bags of unidentifiable contents.
“Excuse me, excuse me. Does anyone have some spare change to help out a person in need?”
The homeless man walked up and down the train car, unintentionally hitting passengers with his bags and taking the occasional small monetary donation from passengers whom he happened to catch by looking them in the eye. Like most of the other passengers, the man and the woman stared intently at the subway floor.
The train began to slow down at the next station, and the homeless man prepared to move to the next car. As he passed the silent couple, the man looked up.
“Here man, take this jacket. It's brand new.”
The other passengers on the train could not resist looking up to see the owner of the voice of the coat-giver. The woman had opened her mouth to argue with the man, but when she saw everyone looking, she didn't say anything.
