<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Newton\u2019s Third Law of Motion<\/strong><\/p>\n For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.<\/em><\/p>\n It was quarter to five by time I got finished at work and about five-ish when I\u2019d got onto my metro home.\u00a0 I knew it was going to take eighteen minutes to travel the seven stops to Howdon from Monument and about ten minutes to walk from there to my mams so I was looking at about half five by time I got there.\u00a0 We\u2019d arranged to have a bit of a family meal \u2013 a Mexican feast; fajitas, quesadillas, nachos, the works. \u00a0\u00a0I told them I\u2019d be along not long after four but we\u2019d been ripped apart by health and safety at work so Joyce, the gaffer, made us all stay behind to deep clean the kitchen.<\/p>\n I took a seat next to someone and opposite another two, it\u2019s always a bit of a squeeze at that time of day but I was glad to get off my feet.\u00a0 Rather than trying to awkwardly avoid looking directly into a stranger\u2019s eyes I checked Facebook and Twitter on my phone.\u00a0 The news broadcasters were tweeting stories about a bailout package for Greece and a local sports journalist posted a link to \u2018NUFC v Villa: full match report\u2019.\u00a0 The bloke sitting in front of me got off at Chillingham Road so I had a scan of the carriage whilst I had the chance.\u00a0 That was the first time I noticed him – the Eldon Square tramp.\u00a0 He had the same coat on that he was wearing about fifteen years earlier when my brother, who was about six at the time, walked face first into him outside Boots.\u00a0 My dad went scatty with Michael that day.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the tramp\u2019s name is Jimmy.\u00a0 He\u2019s a bit of a cult hero around town, everyone seems to know of him.\u00a0 He\u2019s a big, old unit of a man, a few inches over six foot I reckon.\u00a0 Bald on top, long on the back and sides, shoulder length maybe, but I think everyone knows him for his beard.\u00a0 It\u2019s dark, like his hair, full but wiry and matted in places.\u00a0 If you can imagine Santa Claus drained of all his colour and cheer and sketched using charcoal that\u2019s kind of what Jimmy looked like.\u00a0 He sat a couple of seats down the carriage from where I was with a spare seat next to him and two spare in front.\u00a0 I watched him coughing into his hands; a hacking cough, chesty, barking almost.<\/p>\n At Walkergate two girls and a boy got on, the girls were around twelve years old; the boy might have been a year or two younger.\u00a0 The girls wore matching Nike Air Max trainers and grey jogging bottoms, the lad had what looked to be school uniform pants on.\u00a0 The three of them sat in the seats next to Jimmy and it didn\u2019t take long until they began to smirk at each other.\u00a0 The girls zipped their jackets to the top and pulled them right up over their noses.\u00a0 The boy blatantly laughed and then one of the girls jumped up and scarpered further down the carriage to let out her laughter, the other two followed and done the same. I knew Jimmy knew what was going on.\u00a0 He knew they were taking the piss \u2013 loads of people on that carriage did, but we all pretended to be oblivious.\u00a0 The two Nike Air Max girls and the lad got off at Wallsend and as the metro pulled away from the station they looked through the window and pointed and laughed as Jimmy went past. \u201cExcuse me, this is for you\u201d.<\/p>\n The lad held out a clenched fist and when Jimmy raised his palm the lad dropped a handful of change into it and went back to his seat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n John Baker<\/strong> is co-founder and editor of Material <\/em>creative writing magazine in Newcastle. \u00a0He has had work published in The Edge<\/em>, Platforms<\/em> and online at The Pygmy Giant<\/em> and is currently writing a collection of short stories based on scientific laws and principles.\u00a0 www.facebook.com\/material.newcastle <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Newton\u2019s Third Law of Motion For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It was quarter to five by time I got finished at work and about five-ish when I\u2019d got onto my metro home.\u00a0 I knew it was going to take eighteen minutes to travel the seven stops to Howdon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4358,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4356\/revisions\/4358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cYou fuckin\u2019 tramp!\u201d One of the girls shouted.
\nI told myself that he\u2019d be used to it and have a thick skin but I knew he was human.\u00a0\u00a0 As I tried to gauge the other commuters\u2019 reactions to the little shits who\u2019d got off I noticed four black lads – barely school leaving age; two hoods and two caps, leaning in towards each other, speaking in hushed voices and glancing towards Jimmy.\u00a0 One of them nudged another and nodded his head in Jimmy\u2019s direction.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to put up with another round of torment or bullying but I wanted somebody else to kick up a fuss first.\u00a0 One of the group got up from his seat and headed towards where Jimmy sat coughing.\u00a0 He stopped next to Jimmy but didn\u2019t catch his eye.<\/p>\n