Mother and daughter

For the past two weeks or so, I've been crossing paths with a mother and her young daughter on my daily hike to work. The mother is always pushing a stroller with the little girl in it. She speaks to her daughter in an eastern European accent. Could be Polish, maybe Bosnian.

What's interesting about these two is that neither of them ever smiles. Even when I smile at them, which I have done once out of pedestrian courtesy and another time just to see if the complete lack of reciprocity was just a fluke. Their reaction is fascinating: the mother looks down, pretending not to notice. And the daughter just keeps staring downward, disinterested and unsmiling. She seems to lack the curiosity kids have at her age that makes them stare at other people until some killjoy adult tells them it's rude.

Makes me wonder what sort of life this strangely grave pair has at home.