Some years ago, on the London Underground, some of the lines used to replace smashed bulkhead glass with metal plates. This wasn't much fun on a crowded train where you could find yourself mashed into one of these dead ends, with a crowd of people pushing in behind you. Especially in a hot summer when the frotters were out. Some days it seemed like the carriage was full of perverts who couldn't control themselves, grabbing at you and rubbing their cocks up against you. My usual defense was to change carriage, but when you find yourself stuck in a tight corner, with someone behind you, and one of these metal plates in your face, it's often impossible to get out, so you're stuck there, with some creep behind you getting his jollies while you just want to get home and have a shower!
This particular summer seemed to have gone on for ever, and London sweated under its blazing heat day after day. The tube was unbearable, sweaty, clammy air unbreathable as the tiny tunnels concentrated the heat from all our bodies. And here I was, Friday night, heavy shopping bags in tow, on a crowded platform waiting to go home. The sigh of the train breaking wasn't the only sigh, it was as though the scant breeze pushed ahead of it through the tunnel was being absorbed by every soul there, in grateful relief, before they crammed themselves, sardine like, onto that lethal tin box. I'd deliberately taken a later train as I'd been plagued by one particular frotter who was completely creeping me out. So I thought this way I'd get my shopping done and be able to get home unmolested. Some hope.
Joining the pack I crammed myself onto the train, managing to find enough wiggle room for my feet that I could place one of the bags between them, whilst I held onto the overhead rail with my free hand. There was no way I was putting down the bag with the wine in it, that hand also contained my handbag, and that was staying right where it was, where I could feel it against me. The train jostled as we moved away, and the rocking of the carriage lulled us in our smelly, silent sauna to the next station. As ever I hoped that people would leave at this stop, but they didn't, we got crammed in harder, and I found myself forced further back into a corner, with my face at the crease of two metal walls. I couldn't see behind me, couldn't turn my head, could hardly breathe for the pressure against my body.
"Please God," I thought. "Don't let me faint." I lowered my head submissively and patiently as I waited for the next stop, knowing I still had a long way to go.