Eastbound, Bloor and Spadina — Toronto, ON

Black woman, early 40s, wearing white sleeveless shirt, grey dress capris, thick-soled black sneakers, and carrying a turquoise leather purse.

The woman beside her wants to talk. Would the man standing with the small child like her seat? Do the cars have air conditioning? What stop to they get off at? Should she have brought a jacket?

She hugs a small rolling suitcase to her knees, a white leather purse with accidental ball point scribbles along one seam stuffed in her lap. Her son sits across from her, a much larger suitcase closing him. He rests his head on top of it, one earphone in, the other dangling, emitting the steady beats of hip hop.

“You forgot to put the twisty ties on the zippers.”

He lifts his head, nods once, and rests his cheek against the luggage’s handle.

“Nodding ain’t gonna keep nobody out of that luggage. I didn’t buy you no new shorts and T-shirts to have somebody steal them.”

The boy mumbles under his breath. “Ma, twisty ties ain’t gonna keep nobody out of this luggage if they want to get into this luggage.”

“Every bit helps,” she says, looking at the woman next to her. The woman acknowledges the statement and goes back to reading.

“You have kids,” the woman says, not some much a question as an understanding. “They don’t know until they got to pay for it themselves.”

“Maybe,” the woman responds, turning the page.

“Ma,” the boy grumbles. “Ain’t no twisty tie gonna keep somebody from taking what they want.”

His mother looks him straight in the eye.

“Maybe. Maybe not.” The woman reading beside her straightens in her seat. “But, one day, somebody’s gonna take something from you, and then you’ll know. Every chance we got, we got to try.”

What was she reading? Click here.

Julie Wilson is a literary voyeur, the Gossip Girl of the Book World. She tracks readers in the wild at SeenReading.com. Follow Julie on Twitter @seenreading, and @bookmadam where she runs a monthly contest with McNally Robinson.