Rapid Transit
by Jake Barnes
We're on The Worm. I dread the part where the train goes under the bay. I hold my breath until we safely emerge.
It's New Years Eve. A bunch of cops pour through the door of our car. Whoop Dee Do. Red faced boys. Somebody must have spiked the punch.
We have dinner with friends at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Party poopers. Everybody leaves for home before midnight.
Down, down we go into the bowels of earth. There is a hole in the ground at the foot of Market Street. The train is crowded. My wife sits; I hang onto a strap, grim faced. It is cold. I look at my watch. It is January 1. I stand cheek to jowl with wilting celebrants. Swells and bums. Boys in low riders. (How do they walk in those pants?) Girls wearing mini-skirts, tottering on high heels.
Happy New Year. I grin at my wife, wink. She's bright eyed and bushy tailed. She loves the train. She loves The City. She loves anything that will get her out of the house. I tell her she would go to a shit fight if she had the first throw.
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Author's Note
You didn't have to be there. You could have read about it in the newspaper in the morning.
I don't like going under either... In the mud.
"She loves anything that will get her out of the house." Great set up for a great last line.*
Sounds like fun...
Nice. Love the description you provide. *
I enjoyed my first and only BART ride 30 plus years ago.
Enjoyed this, too.
Great attention to detail, Jake -
"Down, down we go into the bowels of earth. There is a hole in the ground at the foot of Market Street. The train is crowded. My wife sits; I hang onto a strap, grim faced. It is cold. I look at my watch. It is January 1. I stand cheek to jowl with wilting celebrants. Swells and bums." *
Jake-I like urban rapid transit, my wife hates it. I've had the best eye contact fantasies on the train under the East River. I draw everybody. I understand your fears. I guess I'm a natural urban cowboy. Love this story in an urban way.*
This paragraph:
"It's New Years Eve. A bunch of cops pour through the door of our car. Whoop Dee Do. Red-faced boys. Somebody must have spiked the punch."
How you do what you do, Jake!
Another one that captures the zeitgeist. I'm right there with you. Your piece moves with a rapid transit pace! *
Really good story-telling, Jake *