Day 294 - Lost in the Crowd

 LOST IN THE CROWD

Prompt - Lost in the Crowd : Write about feeling lost in the crowd

He was lost.  Phone battery dead, hadn't thought to have a bit of the old technology backup, aka 'a map' along with him, and no clear idea of where he was actually headed for.  Around his the streets were crowded, commuters and delivery people and kids all going about whatever it was they were doing.  All with purpose and that clear eyed look you have when you know exactly where you're going.  And then there was him.

Berlin was a huge city.  With no knowledge of German he'd been relying on his phone to translate.  So if he asked someone for directions, assuming he could get any of these people to stop for long enough, he was beaten already if they didn't speak English.  Maybe a bit later, when things quietened down, people might be more receptive, but for now he felt he was on his own .

Best to head in what he thought was the right direction, look for some landmark that might help him get his bearings.  Or, better still, find a U Bahn station.  He thought he could get back to the hotel that way.  But for now it was all he could do to find a way through the rushing crowds, stick to his path, and not get run over.  

None of this caused him any panic. He basked in his anonymity, happy to go unnoticed.  Cities, and their ability to hide individuals away, were still fairly new to him.  An upbringing in a small village, where everyone knew everyone and everything about them, whether you wanted them too or not, had left him craving aloneness, invisibility, in his adult life.  Some called that loneliness, or disconnection, or alienation, but he found it soothing not to be the subject of discussion, the odd one out.

That was fine in the streets.  His childhood had ;left him totally unprepared for the world of parties he'd experienced as a student, at least in the early days.  He soon learned that these events were not his friend, that they only provided the sort of crowd in which a person like him was not just alone, but truly lonely.  They were the worst kind of crowds, the ones where people expected you to be 'happy, to 'enjoy yourself', whatever that meant to them.  But he was happy now, he was enjoying himself, exploring these unknown streets, hearing a mysterious language all around, floating through in his own bubble of contemplation as he weaved through the bodies hurtling homewards.  This was his kind of party.