Seen on the Subway-- Love in Action

I boarded the subway train and sat across from a man.  He looked to be in his 50ties.  Next to him sat, what felt to me to be, a version of his teenage self-- so strong the nature of their shared facial features. Both were so focused on the electronic trip map that announced the upcoming station stops that I concluded they were either visitors to the city or just simply concerned with missing their exit stop, or both. Eyes steadily trained on the map, they exchanged a few words--indecipherable to me due, in part, to my headphones, the faint volume of their conversation, and, to a greater degree, the drowning underscore of machinery in action that was our train as it sped along the tracks. At one point, the older man reached out his right hand  and grasped the right shoulder of the younger man, pulling the latter slightly towards him resulting in a snapshot that spoke of love and pride. Despite the gesture, they still kept their gazes turned out, still resting on the map. But now, the young man was smiling. And so the combined effect of the shoulder grasp and the smile that followed, touched my heart and made me smile, too.