Subway Surreality

Lo que se encuentra uno en tumblr...

"Subway Surreality
It was a stormy Wednesday afternoon, the week leading up to Fourth of July weekend. I stepped out of the building that housed my lab and snapped open an umbrella while shouldering my backpack. After a moment’s deliberation, I decided to stop by the Chemistry library where my TA was holding office hours and returning graded assignments.

I ran a critical eye over the marks in red and then took my leave. On my way back outside from the library, I bumped into my lab partner and chatted with her. Then we parted and I made my way into the subway.

The subway in New York City is always a strange scene. Eight million people coming and going, lost, looking, hustling, drunk, homeless, selling.

I stepped onto the next train that arrived and stood amidst all the other people in the car who were similarly clutching dripping wet umbrellas.

I had been preoccupied with selecting the music on my iphone when I inadvertently exited the train a stop early. Noticing this as it happened, I shrugged it off and walked two doors up and re-entered through another subway car. Next stop.

As we pulled into 59th Street Station, I stood at the sliding door’s glass windows. The train reduced its speed gradually. Like Wheel of Fortune, I waited and watched helplessly as the people lined up along the platform slid by slower and slower.

And that’s when I saw her for the first time in two years. She was pretty and her eyes stared blankly ahead. Until our eyes met and then a shock of recognition jolted us from our commuter haze. Without sparing a second beat, she dashed her eyes to the side to avoid acknowledging what she saw.

Six years as intimate lovers and in that eternal moment we were perfect strangers.

The train kept moving, the wheel clicked on by, and her form was pulled from my sight. She entered the train in one door as I exited from another. The subway carried her off into the tunnels and I snapped my umbrella open to waltz back into the pouring rain.

I didn’t feel sadness. Or jealousy, anger, pain. All I could do was marvel. What if I hadn’t visited my TA? What if I hadn’t stopped to chat with my lab partner? What if I hadn’t accidentally gotten off the train early and then boarded along further up?

When good and bad are left behind, it’s hard to do anything but goggle in wonder."


... and that guys, THAT is amazing :´)

Creditos al tumblr de lazyyogi, btw.