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by Kuyi Author IconMail Icon
Rated: E · Short Story · Other · #939332
A man catches a train...
There was a shine coming off the forehead of the man speaking. His arms were waving wildly, almost as though they ran on a source of power independant from his body. Although he was speaking in a loud clear voice, it was impossible to discern his words from the noise of the street. People would walk by, ignoring him for the most part, although some would occasionally slow down to see if there was anything worth listening to. Inevitably they would move on quickly, evidently disturbed by whatever it was he was saying. I found myself staring out the window at this strange, obviously deranged man yelling at passers-by while the sales report I needed to finish sat untouched on my desk.
The better part of an afternoon had passed before I decided to head down to street level to take a closer look. I had planned to find somewhere close, yet out of his line of sight so I could listen unobtrusively. Unfortunately, as soon as I made eye contact with him, he immediately left his corner and began walking quickly toward me, ceasing his unintelligible oratory with such sudden fury that I nervously started to look left and right in the hopes of finding something that would allow me to pretend I was far too preoccupied with some unimaginably important task to notice the likes of him. Unfortunately, all my eyes could find on such short notice was a newspaper box.
He found me standing idiotically in front of the newspaper box, digging desperately through my pockets in search of coins that I knew were resting comfortably at the bottom of a snack machine in the company cafeteria, eleven floors up in the office building I had just come out of.
"Look at me." he said, and as much as I wanted to glance at him quickly with the most condescending look I could possibly give, I found myself looking directly at him. His eyes were the strangest I had ever seen, being set deeply into his face and seeming to change colour depending on how the light hit them; one moment they were green; then black, then blue-grey; for a brief instant I could've sworn I saw them shift from grey to silver to gold. Although he had been speaking passionately to no one for the past several hours, his face was now completely expressionless. We stared at each other without speaking for what seemed like an eternity.
Several moments passed before he spoke again. "Follow me" he said in a toneless voice, and began to walk towards the street corner. As casually as I could, I looked around to see if anyone had noticed but as I still enjoyed the anonymity of a busy city street, I started to walk slowly in his general direction.
As I walked, it seemed to me that the late afternoon sun had begun almost imperceptibly to brighten. By the time I realized this was happening, we had covered two city blocks and the sun was beating down overhead with such ferocity that I had to remove my jacket. I suddenly realized the crowded, familiar city street I had just barely crossed was now completely empty. I could still see the back of the man far in front of me. Somehow, although I was sure I was walking faster than he was, the distance betweeen us had increased to almost a full city block. I started walking faster. I felt an almost compulsive need to catch up to the man.
By the time we got to the train station, the world I saw before me was completely changed. Gone were the pedestrians in suits and the traffic. Sand and rock had replaced concrete and asphalt as far as the eye could see. I could now see dark mountains at the horizon where builidings had once been. Although the sun overhead was blazing, and the sky was bright blue, it seemed to fade gently into an ugly, unnatural yellow-brown, reminding me of a severe bruise.
The train station was a huge monolithic building now, the only building I could see. I could see tracks leading out of the station and heading down into a giant gaping tunnel. The man was standing in front of the building. He seemed impatient.
"Come on, now hurry up!" he said. I seemed to have lost all control over my actions, as I walked quickly past him into the cavernous hall of the station. He watched as I got a ticket from the automated teller and walked to the boarding platform.
I could see people on the train. They stared straight ahead with their lips pressed tightly together. Their eyes seemed to be too wide open. They looked less that human somehow. I saw an empty seat and sat down. I could see the man that brought me here from my window standing next to the train. He looked at his watch. Beneath my feet, I could feel the train begin to move.
Suddenly, I realized what had happened. "Wait," I said to noone in particular. "I have to get off." I stood up and looked at the woman sitting across from me. "Excuse me," I said, trying to keep panic from entering my voice; "I have to get off this train." She kept staring straight ahead. A sense of inevitability came over me in a wave, and I sat back down again. As the train entered the tunnel, I closed my eyes.
© Copyright 2005 Kuyi (eincontent at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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