Rachel Cusk: Saving Agnes

Agnes looked up, blinking. The light in the bus was exceptionally bright. Someone seemed to be speaking to her.

‘Excuse me?’ she said.

‘I said, it gets boring, doesn’t it?’

It was the man in the seat next to hers. He was smiling benignly at her. She wondered what she had been doing to make him so concerned.

‘Only if you want to get there,’ she replied.

He appeared to be considering her answer.

‘That’s true,’ he said, nodding.

‘I mean,’ she explained, ‘if you were going to the Odd Fellows’ reunion party, you wouldn’t be in such a hurry, would you?’

He looked at her bemusedly. She felt herself blushing. Suddenly he laughed.

‘I suppose not,’ he said. ‘But I don’t know if it would be worth it.’

‘That depends on how odd a fellow you are,’ she replied. ‘You never know, it might open up a whole new world.’

He laughed again, this time more heartily.

‘My name’s Steven,’ he said, extending his hand.

She looked at the hand and then at him. Perhaps things weren’t so ordinary after all.

‘Agnes,’ she replied, shaking it. ‘Agnes Day.’