Three Knights

The air was cold. The snow was thick. Wind bit my face and whipped my hair across my eyes. I'd missed my train by 20 minutes, and had still not reached the station. Instead, I was stood before the largest hill in a city made entirely of hills with a suitcase the size of me and twice as heavy. It had taken over an hour to drag the case here, covering a total of less than 2 miles, and the skin on my hands was cracking from the icy wind. I may die on this journey, I had decided. A clan of drunken man celebrating St. Patrick's day had offered to help carry this case the remaining short distance to the station. I'd declined; I did not want to be held accountable for the injuries they may recieve in their attempts to lift this luggage. I braced myself, held my breath, and heaved the bag up the hill. It took another 10 minutes to reach the station, some 300 yards away.

Having missed my train, I had to stay on the platform til the next possible train home, which happened to be 6 grueling hours after I'd arrived. I watched wearily as it pulled into the platform. The automatic doors opened, and people piled in and out as I dragged my suitcase over to the train. I took a breath, and prepared to lift the case into the carriage. And then I realised. The gap between the platform and train was exactly the width of my case, and I was not strong enough to clear the gap in one movement. I'd fallen at the last hurdle. There was no way I could possibly get my case onto the train alone...

And then three men, in their forties, approached me. With a smile and a joke, they took my luggage and lifted it with ease into the carriage. I thanked them several times over for their kindness, and found a space to stand with my suitcase out of the way of other passengers. The train began moving, and I began texting my partner about the men's kindness, when I was approached again by two of the same men. They smiled, "You look like you've had a bad day", handed me a hot coffee and a kitkat. I never saw them again. I can only aspire to be as selfless as these three men were to a young student travelling home for the Easter holiday.