Then one of their guardians—Alexandre， I overhear—pulls the girls nearest me away.
“Don’t you see you’re crushing the dame！”
The three are lined up now， a beautiful whiteblack-Asian rainbow， looking as if they’re in front of a 9）firing squad. 10）Reprimands in French sound at a frequency that send shivers down the spine.
接著，另一個座位也空出來了，但那是逆向的。我不能坐逆向的座位。（嗯，其實我可以，但會覺得惡心反胃。）
於是我側坐在椅子上，這樣就不會背向著列車前進的方向。
列車在下一站停了下來，一群小學生正在排隊等候。有時候成群的孩子湧入車廂會讓我緊張，但當這一群孩子走進來時，另一種可能卻湧上了心頭：高興。
糟糕天氣的好處之一便是能見到這許許多多穿著胖嘟嘟的冬衣，戴著漂亮的連指手套，還有可愛的小帽子的孩子們。這些孩子都活潑快樂，但舉止有禮。我身旁的女孩子們（我們的視線剛好齊平，我坐著，她們站著）正沉迷於某個女生間的小遊戲，但當她們向我這邊一瞥，我回以微笑時，她們也對我報以微笑。我想要給他們所有人拍張照。這真是太棒了！這正是我心懷感激的那些微小時刻之一。
接著，他們的看護人之一——亞曆山大，我無意中聽到他的名字——將離我最近的女孩子們拉開了。
“你們沒看到自己擠到這位女士了嗎！”
現在這三個孩子站成了一排，如同一道美麗的黑白黃色彩虹，看起來她們就像正站在行刑隊的麵前。用法語說出的訓斥以一個令人脊梁骨發涼的頻率在空中回響。
“Je ne suis pas content！” Alexandre says. “This calls for punishment. As soon as I see your mothers， I’m telling them what you did！”
I see in their little faces they have no idea what they’ve done. I don’t either！
Wait， Monsieur！ I’m the dame？！
Alexandre is going on about how he’s told them to pay attention. “Apologize to the lady，” he says motioning at me. He thinks I was being prevented from sitting in the seat properly because they were there！
The other guardian， a woman， echoes something Alexandre says but then softens. “C’est pas grave，” she whispers at them.
I catch her eye and enthusiastically confirm. Yes， yes， it’s not serious！ She smiles wanly at me.
We all get off at the next stop—the entire episode took place between only one metro stop to the next.
“I was already in that position. They didn’t do anything wrong，” I tell Alexandre as we pile out of the car.
At least that’s what I think I say. My French often fails me under pressure.