Going to work

10 minutes before departure. Enough time to buy lunch? I take the risk and enter the grocery shop. Queues at the checkout are long, but the women work fast. Still four minutes to go. Track 8. I walk along the coach to the door and look inside. Not many people. We leave on time. Two Jewish girls discuss their jobs, the little brother flips through his tanakh but is constantly distracted by the collectors cards of the European championships. The woman next to them orders a little bottle of red wine (at 8 o'clock in the morning). I think about getting up to look at her but decide otherwise. The ticket inspector smiles at me when he sees that I own the general railpass, I am flattered. Country flies past the window. Before Olten is an old industrial zone. I see that an artist has his studio in one of the buildings just between a painter and a panel beater. I wonder whether he eats lunch together with the painters. I listen to the girls. They switch between Swiss dialect and Yiddish. The PA announces Zurich main station and people get up to walk through all the coaches to reach the first one just behind the locomotive. This shortens their walk on the platforom at the terminus. The woman catches the minibar on its way back and helps herself to another bottle. She looks pretty normal. Maybe she has her reasons. Zurich main station is packed. You need to walk briskly and plan your trajectory to avoid collisions. I always leave on the left side, where there is no official exit. There is a street to cross, but traffic is light and the tram blocks your way only rarely. Today it does. The traffic lights at the next intersection are timed, you just need to get the first one right. Up the hill, through a little alley. I can never decide whether I should take one or two steps at a time. I pass the church. Once I passed the priest on the stairs. I start to warm up. It's gonna be a hot day.