saved (not)

"Excuse me, miss…"

He's proffering something, a small pamphlet barely larger than a business card, so I take it. It's a reflex, nothing more; I don't look at what he's given me.

It's in the same manner — a reflex, nothing more — that he adds, "You look like you've been miserable lately."

This, I think, is presumptuous, even for a standard marketing hook. I am, after all, sitting at a tram stop on Bourke St, temporarily alone, surrounded by strangers. Supine on the seat behind me is a resident l...