"Hey, you have ever got on a train, didn't you?" Spine opened his mouth to
break silence that may have been a load on his mind.
"Of course, I take a train." Aircraft carrier felt Spine's words rescue him. A
scene had come to his mind repeatedly quite a while. He was lying on his back
to a vacant lot with his belly shedding blood. Pale dull brown bases of
scattered weeds rose so clearly in his mind. He preferred rather to be pestered
with Spine's silly talk than view such terrible pictures.
"Which seats do you take?"
Aircraft carrier was confused by the sudden question.
"So what?" he asked.
"I am sorry. Who may understand it?"
"Oh, I do not understand it at all."
"Imagine that you ride a train through doors at the left side to the traveling
direction."
"When you stand on the platform, a train from the right will open the left
doors, but a train from the left will open the right doors."
"Yes, there is no choice. But anyway let's suppose that you ride from the left
side door."
"Yes, I will."
"Which seats do you take?"
"So what?" Aircraft carrier's voice rose.
"So, which seats do you take: the left side seat along the door you entered at
or the opposite right side seat?"
"I will take a vacant seat."
"The train is almost empty and you can sit on both."
"Then, the opposite side. The legs are already going there."
"That's it,"
"What is that?"
"You have decision. A man who sits on the other side without looking aside is
said to be decisive. A man who stops, turns around just for a moment, and takes
the seat on the door side is a waverer probably."
"That cannot be true." Aircraft carrier had an amazed look.
"You think so."
"Yes, I think so."
"No, I read it in a book. It is statistically so."
"Are you serious?"
"You'd better believe it."
"But you need not turn on your heel to take a seat on this side. It would be
enough for you to turn widely. A seat on the opposite side is not right in the
middle. It is diagonally in front of you."
"Though they say there is a subtle but unbridgeable gap between the two," said
Spine importantly.
