A task that I both succeeded and failed at

A steady beat is tattooed upon my eardrums

A song I like

It's my stop

And the same applies for everyone else, the hundreds of them

A rush of people as we all abandon the train

Flowing down the stairs as a liquid, I am the only Chinese in sight

Everyone else is Malay

Everyone is bumped and pushed around as they rush to stick their ticket into the machine, giving them access to the open space beyond

I am not part of that everyone

And I am given a wide girth

It's probably because my hairdo has a tendency to make strangers nervous

They all head in one direction, and I in the other

Apparently everyone is here to see Selangor's state team play soccer

I am not part of that everyone either

So I cross the street, away from the hustle

And join the group of people waiting for taxis

I notice a Malay lady with two young children, aged between 2 and 5

While she cradles the younger one against her chest, she attempts to flag down a cab

There are two people in front of her

Two cabs pull up

Two for two

And so the woman is disregarded

We stand there for a further 10 minutes as a lull in the frequency of cabs decided to take hold

During that duration more people take up their positions in front of us

A cab drives by, already holding a passenger

The all so common raiser of short lived hope

And then it approaches, the first empty cab in what seemed like an eternity

I walk out further than anyone else to flag the cab

Oddly enough the cab heads for me, almost as if to reward my initiative

Or maybe it was heading for the woman with the children

I won't know as she was rather close behind me

I gesture to the woman; A silent communication letting her know that I've decided to let her take the cab

She raises a hand in a silent word of thanks

And then the cab driver decides that he doesn't want to take the woman to where she needs

It's too far, or in the wrong direction

Or for some other meaningless reason it's too much trouble it seems, to aid her and her two children

He drives off before anyone else can get to him

What an oddity

I am annoyed

Another lull in taxis, so soon that it seems cruel

It's been half an hour that I'm standing here now, waiting

And for her, even longer

A silver car then proceeds to pull up on the opposite side of the road

As prearranged, my father has arrived to pick me

So I cross and get in

And as a different beat starts to tattoo itself upon my eardrums

I wonder if the woman noticed that I was trying to flag down a cab for her