Girl on a Bus.

When I was fourteen or fifteen I saw a girl staring out of a

bus window. She was four or five years older than me, very pretty with long

dark hair. But it was not her looks which attracted my attention. It was the

desolation in her face. She looked lost in a gulf of despair, hopeless and

helpless. I was transfixed by her.

What could make such a lovely young woman look like that,

feel like that? I wondered what it was like to be her, and then I wondered what it was like to be any other person, to see

through their eyes, move with their body, think with their thoughts, wake with

their dreams. I have been wondering it ever since.

The girl became the female lead in my first, long-gone

novel.

When I’ve discussed this puzzle with other people I

usually draw blank looks. They either don’t understand what I mean or say,

‘Well, of course, everybody is different.’ And then they turn away as if that

were the end of the matter.

I have just started to read ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ for a Coursera course in Historical Fiction.

Tyrone Power Snr., father of movie star Tyrone Power, as Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities, ca. 1899-1901 / photographer Hammer & Co., Adelaide (Photo credit: State Library of New South Wales collection)

I was pleased, and relieved to see that Dickens wrote these words:

‘A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature

is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.’

It is a wonderful fact.