cornered on the tube

Two men in dark suits stepped into my carridge of the circle line train while I was on my way to volleyball practice. I glanced twice at the second of the two men, trying to make out the writing on the badge he wore on his suit. I could make out "Jesus Christ" in bold white letters on the dark background, but no more. As if noticing my lingering glances he looked at me a couple of times; whilst I desperately tried to look away with a preoccupied frown. The last thing I needed now was for this guy to decide that I was the perfect prey for his outreach program. Desperately, I tried to look calm, as if oblivious to my suroundings with the music from my MP3 player buzzing in my ears. Although I was staring at the tube map, spread across the wall of the carridge I saw him look at me again, out of the corner of my eye. Then it happened, as I had dreaded, he motioned toward me, getting his companion's attention. Discreetly the other man turned his head and shot a glance in my direction; I might not have noticed had he not already been the focus of my attention. I was praying for the train to arrive at my stop, but before I'd even finsished that though, the man took a couple of steps toward me - his intentions were clear. I took the left earplug out of my ear and braced myself for the inevitable "are you saved?"

Instead his asked me "do you play for imperial?" I was caught entirely off guard as I stammered a yes of some sort or other. It turned out that they had been looking in my direction because of my imperial college shorts, kneepad and tyrifjord volleyball klubb jacket with its norwegian logo; one of the two men was norwegian, and the other played volleyball - sometimes things aren't as they seem.