narrative on the subway

[eclectica]

I was sitting on the train across from some guy who was well dressed, like he worked in business or something. I was watching the guy read, and a girl started cutting her nails on the mostly empty subway train. He stared at her for a while but she didn't notice, as her back was turned to him. The persistent angry stare of his made me uncomfortable, and I was worried he would react violently to the girl. Meanwhile on the other side of the train was a totally filthy homeless man sleeping, who he paid no attention to. After staring at this girl with a look of incredulous outrage, the guy actually got up from his seat and came really close to her as if he couldn't believe his eyes, but she still didn't notice him. He then went back to his seat. I happened to notice that the guy was reading Michael Moore's book Dude, where's my country? It wasn't the type of material I expected him to be reading. Was he some socially conscious individual?, I wondered. A few stops ahead on the train some lady got on and asked "Is this the R train?", and someone else answered her affirmatively. Meanwhile this guy just stared at the lady blankly when she asked the question.

At that point I figured the dude out. He loves to stare at people and look down upon others. When he stares at people he must think of himself as a pillar of the community. Yet all his actions are the opposite, as he is unsocial towards people. He's the type of guy who would have a well manicured lawn, keeping up with the Joneses, yet be so antisocial in so many other ways with his nasty competitiveness. I'll bet since it was 21:00, he works 12 hour days, working on Wall Street, and he was so persistent in his staring I was wondering if he was on coke, giving him that competitive edge in the shark-eat-shark world of Wall Street.

The guy was right, that the girl was wrong in cutting her nails on the train, but he overreacted, and he showed himself to be impotent with his muteness. I'll bet he's not a pleasant fellow to be around.

Well my narrative is coming to an end, and I am typing this on a laptop on the subway, and saving as a text file to plug into the LAN at home and then copy and paste to the forum. I just came from a computer class and am typing on the laptop that I get to keep, which my work all paid for. Now that the classes are over I have plans of formatting the hard drive and installing the 7-CD set of Linux, which I plan to order soon from debian.org.

[Dollar_Girl]

I was on the train yesterday, coming home from work. It was about midnight and i was tired and my feet hurt and i had that feeling in my back where it NEEDED to be cracked, but nothing i could do would relieve the tension. Just my luck that i become surrounded by 15 something year old girls and boys who still think spitting on each other is cool, and yelling at everyone "whatchu lookin' at cunt? fucken cunt!" etc. So i thought i would leave and use the pay phone but this little twirp with a staind singlet and pants waistband hanging lower than his balls beat me to it by about 40 seconds. Anyway, i lined up behind him while he was on the phone and picking his nose wiping it on the "taxi numbers" sign above the phone, but since i was easily irritable due to my tired state, i started getting pissed off at him for taking so long. Anyway 45 minutes and about 100 thoughts of cracking the phone against his head later, the train arrived and the little shit is still on the phone.

Then i felt guilty for being so irritated... i am not usually like that, but because it was late and i'd been working all day, i was sort of emotional. (waht a girly thing to say).

So we all get on the train, the atmosphere is bleek... miserable, everyone looks like they are in their own cell... like a bubble... staring somewhere, dark circles under their eyes add to the misery...it looks like a set of an english movie... anyway, just my luck, i get on a train with no guards. So this flock of dirty mouthed kids sits down, next thing i know 10 more join them, and they are all hyper because one of them has brought beer, and because they felt so rebellious and cool they got over-confident. So again, spitting on the carpet of the train, yelling at everyone, smashing beer bottles on the walls, throwing lit cigarettes on the train floor etc...
and for some reason, at every station (and i still had 26 stations to go) everyone that got on, somehow knew them... i saw this flock, this hyper-spitting-flock of foxes growing... like a disease...so i get up and move to the next carriage. Then i sit down next to his guy who looks like tarzan and he keeps looking between my legs, despite them being tightly crossed. Each time i go to switch legs to cross, he has waht almost looks like an instinctual reaction to quickly LOOK THERE... and each time i would look at him, he'd look away... so i leaned in close to him and i said "I SEE YOU".

SO i move again and sit next to some big gigantic white man with blonde hair... looked harmless... but he was a talker. Though i appreciate a talker, but i was emotional. emotional women dont want talkers. they want to be left alone to feel sorry for themselves. So he tells me about how he got shot at a train station once and then proceeds to tell me his whole lifes story... 6.4 yrs in british army, served 19 yrs in some place near the congo, traveld world, met wife in solomon islands etc... then his face lights up and he says "guess how old i am!" and i said "78." and his face dropped with dissapointment... he said "how did u know?".

So i thought, great, i just made the old man frown, so i move again... and then i sit on a half eaten cheese burger left on the seat. And that became the new thought that dominated my mind till i fell asleep at home, in bed - "HOW COULD I NOT HAVE SEEN THE GODDAMN BURGER!".

[assorted]

i rode the subway today and watched eclectica staring at the business man staring at the chick cutting her nails.

i was the filthy homeless guy.

[registered]

Originally posted by assorted
i rode the subway today and watched eclectica staring at the business man staring at the chick cutting her nails.

i was the filthy homeless guy.
lol !!

[Dollar_Girl]

Oh Australia is very beautiful... but i didn't say she was without social disbehaviour or crime.

It wasn't a subway... our train stations are all above ground with the exceptions of 2 as you go into the city (i am describing QLD, specifically Brisbane and the northern and southern suburbs). As for gaurds... they are there after about 9:30pm only, on selected trains only, and they patrol the trains in a pair. After a certain hour the number of carriages a train has decreases, so that people are more compact and have less opportunity to become isolated and endangered. Trains are usually full no matter what time it is and believe me, the gaurds have no trouble kicking people off the trains. I appreciate the gaurds, because they go beyond the requirements of their jobs. Once i had an off duty gaurd who went 10 stations more, just so i wouldn't be alone on the train at night.

I have been travelling by train since i moved into Queensland, and i have never once experienced any type of physical or verbal abuse myself. If i didn't feel safe, i wouldn't be travelling by train. Many times there are police officers on trains, and at train stations there are gaurd dogs.

I dotn like finishing work at midnight because i would preffer to travel by train a little earlier than that... not so late... but in the big picture, i dont mind either way.

The atmosphere was bleek on the train that day, because of the time of hour... most people were tired and zoned out... dark circles under their eyes, staring... half dead and half alive with thoughts... generally i feel safe travelling train at night...


*last words of doom, i've jinxed myself*

[eclectica]

Originally posted by Dollar_Girl
Once i had an off duty gaurd who went 10 stations more, just so i wouldn't be alone on the train at night.
You are very attractive, and I wonder how friendly guys would be to you if you were ugly instead. The friendly, helpful side tends to come out when guys run into a really attractive girl. For a brief, limited encounter, it's hard to judge someone's true motives.

[Dollar_Girl]

True i dont know what his motives were, but he was about 55, and didn't tell me he gone past his station, untill i got up to get off. He didn't talk to me the entire time, just read his newspaper and ate a banana. Eitherway, kind gesture :beer:

[eclectica]

Originally posted by Dollar_Girl
i dont know what his motives were, but he was about 55
who's your daddy? :oompa: