There I stood on the lonely subway platform, still longing for another hit on the snooze button, still wishing my commute was shorter. There is little to do while waiting for a train. Little to do save one thing: staring at the other poor souls waiting along with you.
I looked right to see several pods of fat businessmen, reading away tirelessly at this morning’s Journal. I looked left to see a forlorn secretary with a misshapen nose, a bike messenger lacking in bike, a subway maintenance man held still by the very beast he was to fix. I looked all about to the sides of me, absorbing the countless sad faces on the platform. All locked in one position: pointed toward the empty tunnel that despite our best efforts in longing produced no train. No one is full of glee on the subway platform at 8 in the morning. And no one hides their sorrow.
Then I turned my gaze forward.
And there she was.
A vision. A… a… picture of perfection. A girl with a face that made you wanna think real hard to come up with a metaphor for how pretty it was, like maybe say, “it could launch a thousand ships”, but not say that because you wanted to think of one on your own. There she was. Longish brown hair, translucent blue eyes, delicate mouth. She was dressed perfectly. Her clothes were flattering, but not formal. Her outfit screamed, “Take notice of me, and take notice I’m not some annoying rich girl. Take notice that I’m not overly concerned with appearance, that I’m not out looking for money, that I’d like to find a nice comedy writer with a long torso and make sweet, sweet love to him.”
Her outfit was very outspoken.
I broke out of my haze of love to curse the foul world that put me where I was, that put me on the other side of the platform from this beauty, tempting me with her perfection. I cursed the world because I knew how it worked. I would never get to sit next to this woman on the train. I would never get an opportunity to profess my love for this Helen of the 6 train. The world works in mysterious ways, and those ways do not include sitting me next to hot girls. I know. I’ve done research.
I looked away. I cleansed my mind of what could have been. I locked my face toward the tunnel, like all the rest, and a part of me died inside.
The train came; the doors opened; I shuffled onto the train; I found a seat. “We live in a world of small victories,” I thought, somewhat dramatically. I placed my bag below my feet. I sat up.
She sat next to me.
“!”
“We live in a world of beauty and wonder,” I thought, somewhat dreamily. I sat in waiting. The world had given me a chance, now I had to make good.
To be continued! click here to read Part 2