The Shorter Side of a Tube Ride

I have never really thought much about my height. I have always been short, though for a long time you couldn't tell me that. I once had an argument with my friend Chloe that we were the same height even though she’s a good few inches above me. To this day I think she’s had a growth spurt because I swear when we first met 7 years ago we were the same height. I can’t argue with fact though I guess.

I always thought I was roughly the same height as everyone, it’s because the majority of the people in my family are quite tall or at least average height. So I just assumed I hovered with them. My sisters and female cousins are all quite average in their height, but my male cousins. Shit the bed! They are all huge and tower over me. Something I noticed more at Christmas when we were all together, when I ended up face in a belly button. Its times like this I start thinking, yeah I'm quite short. Then I look to my Mum, who’s even shorter than me, and think yeah, we’re pretty short. Bless her tiny little size 4’s! Out of a family of trees we’re the two little shrubs!  But it’s cool, good things come in small packages and its lush being hugged by so many tall people!

I don’t have an issue with being short. Other people tend to comment more than I think about it. I get some banter from it, but nothing that would make me hate my height. I get the odd, “How’s the Weather down there?” , and people come down to my height and say “ Oh that’s what it looks like down here.” Classic huh! Some people sometimes use my little head as a leaning post for their elbows or drinks! This is fact! It’s like I said though, nothing had ever happened to make me hate being short. Except the one place where people dread stepping onto in the hours of peak time travel, the tube!

It’s one of the worst places you can be. You’re crammed into these tiny little carriages, pressed against one another. IT’s hot and all you can taste and feel is the breathe of the other people trying to get to wherever they need to go that’s making them endure this hell. You’re perspiring because you’re in too much of a rush to take off you’re jacket when you get into the underground, and your face is puffy and red. You’re looking around at a sea of heads, and outstretched arms trying not to hit into other travellers, enjoying the breeze that occasionally wafts through. Do you know what you can’t see though? You can’t see us little guys.

There is no hell like a tube ride for a short person. At peak times anyway. We look up at you desperately trying to gasp for some air. We can see the light through the joining shoulders, snaking our way around bodies as people simply try and stepped over us. For you guys, you have some sort of oxygen coming into your lungs, while the only thing we can breathe is the material of whatever you’ve decided to wear that day. Days of woolly cardigans or jumpers are the worst. That shit gets in your lungs! You turn you head from side to side to be crushed further by a man’s chest, or a woman’s boob, someone’s back or back pack even. The glasses I've lost, or the times I've had my nose crushed, been tucked under a sweaty armpit I cannot keep count of.

We have no counter attack from this though. No self-defence. We can go onto tip toes and try and meet you in the light, but we have to forfeit balance for this and risk falling everywhere. At least down in the dark material world you are wedged in enough to stay sturdy. The majority of the horizontal rails I can’t even reach, so on those beautiful days when you can move on the tube and it’s only slightly packed I always end up getting pushed away from the vertical ones I can reach and then struggle to reach the high ones. It’s always some tall guy as well that does it. They move you along so that they can get the rail, even though they can comfortably grab the high one, just to watch as you struggle like a kid on monkey bars swinging back and forth.  Don’t be greedy! Just give me the pole will you!!! You can grab the roof ones! I can’t! Be nice!

I’m not saying things are worse for short people in life. Just on the tube. So the next time you get on the tube and spot a shorty struggling for life just give them some breathing space. Don’t push your body directly into their face. Move aside from the central poles and hang onto the high bar. Let the little one through to have a go. It’s embarrassing having to struggle with the high bars. So whatever time you’re having, think about the short one next to you. No, not that one, look down. There they are!