The lonely little brown girl

On the 1 train. Middle of the afternoon. Two young boys 6 or 7 years old were sitting playing some kind of game involving hitting each other's hands with their fore-fingers. Cute- I thought.

Then as the seat next to them became empty they decided they'd like to move to the other end of the seats where the rest of their friends were, but someone came & sat down nxt to them in the meantime & they looked so disappointed. I said to them that if they asked the gentleman he might move & let them go near their friends. They asked, the guy got up but then I heard a male voice forbidding the boys from moving. So they stayed. The voice was that of an Asian-American man. He was their teacher it seemed because when I turned around he was with another small group of young boys.

Amused by the kids I stood where I was & out of curiosity looked over to see the friends of the boys that they had wanted to go sit next to. That's when I saw her. This little brown girl in a burnt orange sweater sitting by herself. The other set of boys next to her were playing amongst themselves. She was sitting with her dangling legs & a bored and lonely exprssion. I looked around & assessed that they were all a group of 6 or 7 year olds traveling with the Asian-American man. But non of the boys were playing with this girl. Her sweater, the design on it, told me that she is South-Asian. I felt sad for her. I wondered what would happen as she grows up? How will she learn to survive in the world of men? What is shs learning from these boys about her place in the world? I'm worried for that girl. May she find inner strength.