Three quiet people on the trolley. They were peering out the windows intently, obviously looking for someplace specific they hadn't been before, but they didn't seem like tourists. No talking. Tourists talk about where they've been, where they're going, look at that, lots of things, partly because they are nervous and excited. They talk partly as a way of holding hands and feeling less scared.

These three looked and said nothing. Parents on the thirty/forty border and their twelve-ish son. They all seemed kind of Financial District, even the kid. Seriously serious. Then the son pointed to DXL, the skateboard store on Market St.

They got off at the next stop without speaking. I imagined that they had come in from the suburbs of San Francisco. I imagined them buying a skateboard for the son. I imagined him getting home and taking the skateboard away from the house and practicing skateboard tricks over and over and making noise.