As I was heading to the exit of Leicester Square tube this evening, I noticed two slightly flushed and possibly tipsy young men on the down escalator attempting to high-five some girls passing them on the up escalator.
Should that be hi-five or ma i just confusing it with hi-fi? It is such an American expression that I feel slightly uncomfortable using it. Also as they were holding their arms straight out, at shoulder height, should it in fact be called a middle-five? What if one of the men had lost a couple of fingers? A middle-three? Alas there is no English way to describe the gesture, probably because it is not a very English gesture. Which is probably why it happening in England seems worthy of note.
I assumed the women knew the men who were leaning awkwardly towards them in the hope that they would slap their hands, as the women high-fived them back. Or maybe the boys had just fancied the girls and figured that given their current opposite escalator-based trajectory, made the out-of-place high-five the only courting ritual open to them.
But I was doing the men a disservice. Because once the girls had passed them, they kept their hands out, inviting everyone else on the upward escalator to give them some skin (again feel uncomfortable with that expression, but all my alternatives are American, because it is mainly Americans that do this). Some people looked on bemused or annoyed and didn't comply. A few smiled. A few joined in.
Alas, I was on the other up escalator, too far away to be reached even by the longest armed man in the world, so I wasn't given a chance. I think I would have refused their kind offer and gave them a look that implied that I thought they were a bit childish and drunk.
But in hindsight I would like to have joined in. Because they weren't doing any harm and were trying to be friendly and they made people smile. They were possibly making some comment on the stultifying unfriendliness of the London tube travelling community. Possibly they were just drunk.
Whatever their motives it was a nice human moment which makes you realise how easy it is to bring laughter into people's lives (and ultimately how pointless it is for me to spend so much time slaving over scripts trying to find a collection of humorous words, when just trying to engage a stranger in an unusual American ritual is enough).
It is annoying that I only saw the joy of this moment in hindsight, but to see it in hindsight is better than not seeing it at all.
