The Subway Rider

The Subway Rider

There lived a man who defied the norms; he did so by aimlessly riding the subways. It was aimless in the sense that he didn’t ride it to get from one place to another; he rode it for fun. This little fellow, who has no friends, enjoys the brief company of strangers that he encounters in public transportation. What’s creepy is that he usually does this around midnight. He isn’t psychotic though, just lonely. His method of curing loneliness is rather odd but nothing crazy.

One midnight, he enters the subway and spots three people – a small number as one would expect at such hours. Starting from his left he sees an old, full-bearded man with a roughed up brown jacket that has many holes in it. Next in sight is an okay-looking lady: long hair, decently dressed with nothing too revealing, and a fancy purse at her side. The last person is another lady, pretty much a tuned down version of the one before. His eyes turn back to the first lady as he slowly makes his way towards her. The woman glances at him. As soon as they made eye contact, he smiles.

What in the world? There are hundreds of seats open but he’s coming towards me? And what was with that smirk? I sure hope he’s not crazy. The last I need to end my day is some weirdo drooling on me in the subway. Wait. Calm down…I shouldn’t overreact. I guess it can’t hurt to give this stranger the benefit of the doubt.

She smiles back at him.

Whoa! Is this fate? Have I actually found a person who would potentially befriend me in one of these random subway rides? This is the best start I’ve ever gotten. He arrived next to her and sits down. Alright! Now I just need to get a conversation started.

The man sticks out his hand and says “Hi! I’m Steve.”

There was a brief pause before the woman shakes his hand and replies “Julie.”

Crap! Why is this guy introducing himself!? I knew I shouldn’t have smiled! Damn the benefit of the doubt! Guess I should’ve known better than live life based on a cliché. I’m still three stations away from my stop! It’s okay though; as long as I don’t talk to him and he doesn’t talk to me, everything will be fine.

There was a small tumble and inertia pushes the two people against their seats for a second. Steve nervously tries to dig up something interesting to converse about. He asks Julie several questions: “How are you? Sure is late huh? You into sports? Magic? Movies? Comics?” Each question was separated by a long pause followed by inevitable one word answers: “Fine(Crap, he’s talking to me!)... yeah... no... No... NO... NO!”

After the sixth question, there were some screeching and the subway door opens. Julie can see her freedom just a few meters away so she hops up and leaps out the door. Once Julie tasted freedom, she turns around only to see her bag next to Steve, her jaws dropping to the floor.

Left behind, Steve’s eyes were wide opened with wavy brows, one brow significantly higher than the other. That expression he had would fit perfectly in the dictionary next to the definition of quizzical. After holding that expression for good five seconds or so, he notices the purse left behind by Julie, and grins. Hey she left her stuff behind… for me? She must be waiting for me to call her. And for a while there I actually doubted this fated encounter. Ha, Silly me!

As the subway door closed, a tear shed down Julie’s face.