I get up from my seat and walk to the stairs at the front. A neatly dressed woman has decided to stand at the top of the stairs so I slow to let her swing out – perhaps she’ll take my seat – but no move does she make. With the usual quiet “scuse me” i make my way gently past in that pressed against the wall way, but she makes no reciprocal movement, you know, turn away, press against wall. Two, three steps down, “for fuuucks sake” i hear her slowly whisper behind me. Another step. Did she really? I turn and she’s looking my way.
“You know, you are the one standing on the stairs” i gesture to the stairs.
Perhaps she hadn’t realised where she was.
Maybe she’d look down and see where she was, go “You are quite right. I am being quite inconsiderate!” headslap “Despite the signs to not stand on the stairs, despite me not owning the stairs in a bus that connect where a lot of people are sat, and the exit that many of them will have to use on the lower level and the social convention that anyone blocking a narrow passage should let others past, and the fact that I did see you approaching, and that you politely asked to be excused… despite all that, I had managed to slip into a dream world where I was queen and everyone around me had to fawn at my every demand – my many apologies to you”