I boarded the bus today not expecting to get a seat. I got a seat anyway. This frail-looking old man made eye contact and gestured for me to take the empty seat beside him. I mumbled thanks and sat down.

The aircon was blowing cold wind. His right sleeve was ruffling and brushed against my arm. I looked at the sleeve and then realised it was just a sleeve. Without an arm to fill it. It reminded me of some guy (is it Yang Guo?) in some novel. I felt sad. Not because of him missing an arm but that he reminded me of some person in a novel. This is a real person missing an arm, not someone from a story. As his sleeve brushed against my arm, I was thinking why his arm was missing. Was it like that from birth? Or did some accident happen? Or did he lose it because of disease?

I tried very hard not to look at his sleeve. As the bus moved, he moved too. Slightly forward and backward, forward and backward. Like a pendulum. His movements were bigger than mine. I guess it was because of his missing arm that his body couldn't balance well. He looked really weak and I kept worrying that he would fall since he was sitting on the outer seat. He had tried to not sit too close and used his left arm to hold on to a rail throughout the whole journey.

He alighted earlier than me. As I looked at him walking away from the bus stop, I felt happy. Even though he had an arm missing, he was still moving around by himself and not stuck at home or in some home for the aged.