The man in front of me stepped off the escalator and approached the ticket barrier. He stopped in front of it, and took a moment. Here he was. Here the ticket barrier was.
He took out his Oyster card. Another moment.
He laid it, with slow, assured precision, on the card reader.
The machine beeped and the gates swung open. He took another moment and nodded to the machine. Not a gesture of thanks; just an acknowledgement that all was as it should be in the world. He strode through, fully satisfied with his experience.
I wanted to be charmed, but mostly I was just irritated that he'd made me fifteen seconds later than I otherwise would have been.
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