Piccadilly, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Bakerloo

So I never wrote about the London bombings. What should I write? I feel bad? Well, duh. But I still feel the need to write... something. I spent a semester in London -- the spring of 1999. It was the best time of my life, and that is not hyperbole. I really mean it. If I could choose anywhere in the world to live, I would hands-down, no questions asked choose London.

I lived on Westbourne Terrace Mews, a street whose name just oozes London-ness. It was located equi-distant between the Paddington and Bayswater tube stations. Paddington was the tube stop I used most frequently, and it is one stop from Edgware Road, which was one of the bomb targets. Edgware itself was within walking distance of my flat.

One of my assignments in a writing class I took was to write about some tiny, mundane section of London life. Take something that seems typical and boring and make it more. In other words, we couldn't write about Big Ben. I chose the Tube, and decided I would ride the Circle Line all day, around and around and just write about what I saw. So I sat there for 5 hours or so, and made two loops around London. As you may know, at each stop a voice tells you to "mind the gap," which in American means, "don't trip, idiot." There are two voices. One is a gruff male with a working class accent who yells at you -- "MIND THE GAP!" You certainly don't want to disobey such a mean guy. But the other voice... oh, the other voice. She is lovely. She speaks softly and sweetly in an upper-class accent. She cares for you. She comforts you. "Please mind the gap between the car and the platform." She says please. It will break her heart if you trip. I was in love with the Tube Woman. As I rode 'round and 'round London, from working-class neighborhood to upper-class and back again I saw hundreds of Londoners, ex-pats, and tourists. But mostly Londoners, and the Tube Woman sort of embodied all of them to me. That delicate voice welcoming me and taking care of me as I was thousands of miles from home. She was a guardian angel on my shoulder who picked me up in one place in the city and brought me safely to my destination.

And now she's hurt and I feel terrible.