On the Metro

I was on the Metro a couple months back and a busker got on the train. He played his piece, collected his money, and stood waiting at the door for the next stop. And as he waited I started thinking. You see, I live in Madrid and there are quite a few buskers here. If you live in any major city I'm sure you experience the same thing. If you have a routine you may even see the same ones everyday on your route. I have to say the Madrid metro buskers aren't all that good. When you here a good one your ears perk up and you are quite suprised, maybe even willing to pull a few coins out here or there. Most buskers sing for 1 1/2 stops. In the midst of traveling to the second stop they will pull out their coin purse and ask for a "donation". By the time they are finished going through the car it's time for them to hop on the next car. On this particular day this busker didn't calculate his time so precisely. So once he collected his sums he still had a few minutes before the metro car came to its stop. I'm sure this had happend before, I'm sure I had seen it before but for the life of me I couldn't remember a time I had actually noticed this before. It seemed strange and made me pensive. This man had had the guts to get on a train sing in front of a hostile or rather apathetic audience and now he had to stand and wait for the doors to open before he could escape. Was he embarresed? Did he even care? Was this his full time job? What did he think about in those few moments before the metro doors open? Did he think about making it onto the next car? About how much he needs to make to buy his dinner? As he stood there I kept wondering what that moment meant to him, if anything at all. Then the doors opened, he stepped out and the moment was gone.