...

As another influx of people enters the hall, you take another deep breath, inhaling the very last bit of privacy that surrounds you, taking every bit of it in, and preparing yourself to indulge in pleasures of solitude amidst hundreds of strangers.

Unfamiliar faces, plastered faces, faint chatter, banal statements, polite smiles, fake smiles, erratic laughter, all become background music to the scintillating symphony of one's own thoughts.

Drift away from reality, away from the many sanctimonious platitudes, present though, but only physically, surrounded by hundreds, yet enjoying loneliness, you block out the world, selfishly.

Gently shaken out of the reverie, then, you slither back into the crowd, once again hoping to camouflage within the many figures..

.. secretly anticipating another escape.