Ian is back from his day in London now.
These are the things he saw and felt
He saw faces everywhere
He saw cars, buses and taxis
He saw rain. He saw faces in the rain.
He saw Concorde flying overhead and started to worry about what was keeping it up there. He wondered what would happen if it ever crashed, how long after the crash it would be before you heard the sound of the impact.
He fought his way down escalators. He was pushed off pavements. He heard shouts from newspaper sellers, van drivers and cyclists. He saw water pouring from gutters. He heard music screaming from a shop window and from a stall selling perfume on a corner. He saw more faces, more feet, more bodies, more faces – laughing, staring, talking, whistling, eating, spitting, crying … faces. He felt despair. He felt like doing terrible things to these people. He felt like he was striding through a film, a film where he was the only person in the world who could see what the world was really like. He began to feel superhuman strength, he felt as if he could just brush it all aside … all the rubbish, all the noise, all the people, all the cars, all the buildings … all of it … He grew taller. His eyes became steely. He stared people out. His stride became longer. His coat begin to fly in the wind. His mind was focussed, pin prick sharp.
And then with his new powers he stepped out into the road. Horns blared, tyres squealed. And then it all went quiet. Still and quiet. Ian stared into the eyes of a fat face shouting silent obscenities at him from a black cab window. Ian stared. The mouth moved. Ian stepped back onto the pavement and … ” …stupid son of a …”, horns shreaked, the city growl started up again. Ian walked slowly away, his head down. He saw the wet tarmac and his wet shoes.
He decided not to go to the interview.
This reads like a scene from a movie – love the atmosphere inside Ian’s head.