Rush Hour

It was rush hour on the Tube in London. I got on to a train, standing room only. Sitting, comfortably ensconced in a corner, was André, reading avidly from a huge tome on some abstruse notion of mathematics. I watched him for a while, reluctant to disturb his concentration. Stop after stop went by, and still I watched and still he read. Then it came to my stop. I thought it was only right to say hello to him after having watched him for such a long time. So I went up to him in his comfortable corner seat. André, I discovered, was endearingly and very firmly fast asleep behind his huge abstruse mathematical tome……