May 17th - 7:22 pm
On train waiting to depart Dax. On last train, suddenly realized I hadn’t eaten since morning and accordingly went to the buffet car. Closed! And not to reopen, even though we had four hours to go to Dax. We pulled in here at 7:00 and I followed the signs to BAR. It was empty, except for the attractive brown-haired (well, they’re all brown-haired here) lady behind the bar wiping the counter, and a young woman with tightly pulled back hair and greenish eyes who observed me with the same sort of steady, expressionless interest my cat shows me. But when I smiled and shrugged, she smiled Mona Lisa like back. An older guy in a t-shirt came in and said a few words to the woman behind the counter. I went right to the “sandwich” glass case -- saddest, ageless remnants of food ever. Five round, thin pastry-type things with either slices of desiccated ham or apple. I stared at it with a biologist’s eye, not a gourmet’s. Their only other companion were four brown icing donuts. The bar woman communicated to me, no food. Closing in “sanc” minutes.
I said, “Donut?” She looked like a judge about to make a guilty ruling, but the young woman, watching me all this while, repeated, “Do...?” wanting to help me. I ran (well, took two quick steps) to the case and pointed: “Donut.”
“Ah.” She translated to the barmaid, who said, “You don’t eat here?” (Actually, I have no recollection of her saying that in English, but I know that’s what she meant.) I nodded and she slipped a donut into a little paper bag.
I finished that then went to a vending machine on the station platform and got a bag of cheese-horns, which were truly disgusting and feel as though they’ve coated my stomach. But the bag said, “Sans ... sans ...” so I had hoped that meant without artificial flavourings, saturated fats, etc., but must have meant taste.
Now train passing through green farmland. No hikers on this train -- seem to be all locals. A little pig-tailed girl with thick glasses was crying when I got on and I smugly detected not the slightest aversion to her. I even smiled sympathetically at her, which seemed to catch the eye of the woman opposite me. Turned out she’s the girl’s mom, but you’d never have guessed it until she told the girl, “Shhhh...” and fixed her hair. Now that’s a mother. The other one just gets worse and worse in my memory. Her baby was blonde and fat and I’m sure if I had studied it, I’d have found it conventionally cute, but the woman seemed more like she was flaunting it than showing signs of love.
Kids quietly playing some handheld game. Unfortunately, they keep failing at the same place so the classical theme song keeps just missing the crescendo.