on the train ride home

Its amazing how someone's face lights up when they are talking to someone they love. You can notice someone and think you have gauged them fairly accurately. But when you see them talking to a loved one everything kind of goes out the window. I saw this gruff-looking lady on the train; tall, slim, athletic, wearing black Nike sneakers, an eighties bomber jacket, with a matching eighties haircut, reading a cheesy novel. Halfway through the train ride her phone rang and she broke into the sweetest Afrikaans. It was not what I expected at all when she beamingly answered the phone with "Hello my liefie". She was suddenly transformed into the most gentle and caring person and her face just looked so lovely all lit up like that. Her entire outer persona collapsed giving me a glimpse into who she really was.