Fear Rides the Subway

A Short Story

Another short story from my college years. I wrote this a few years after I was going to school in Manhattan and felt more isolated in a sprawling metropolis. During one class on Public Speaking a classmate expressed the observation that in cities, we are surrounded but alone. This gave me the seed of an idea of how people seem to self-isolate and remain hidden in public. Often for safety from perceived dangers but also because we become consumed by our busy existence to the point of finding outsiders of our shaped world as threatening. This is a simple and straightforward story and written back when people weren’t eating up completely by the swamp of social media back in 2013. Please enjoy.

Photo by Dias Jakupov on Unsplash

It was a late night in city. The sun had set and many people were heading into their apartments or they were going to restaurants. Some people were still on their way home. Down in a subway platform were only two individuals. They stood a good twenty feet apart as they waiting for the train.

The one closest to the tunnel was a white man; he was tall in a green canvas work shirt and had a black bushy beard. The other was a woman in a bourka veiled over her hair but leaving her face exposed, she had dark skin and a smooth complexion. After moments of silence the train finally pulled into the platform.

The two folks entered the same car where three other people were sitting. Everyone was spaced apart inside this train car. There wasn’t any talk as the lights flickered and the train rocked on the tracks it slid along on.

The three others passengers were sitting down from the white man and the brown woman. First there was a tan man in short-shorts and a baggy V-neck shirt. Across from him and further down was a white woman with long straight blond hair and wide-framed glasses. The last passenger was a black man, he wore a green army jacket and a beanie hat.

Each of these individuals gave their subtle glances to one another but looked away whenever eye contact was made. They all sat in silence. The train took it’s time travelling through the tunnel.

It seemed to linger longer than usual. It was a ten minute trip to get to the next borough. The girl with the glasses was reading her tablet. The skinny tan man was listening to music on his headphones. The black man was looking through a newspaper. The brown woman was reading a book. The white man had a woven bracelet on his wrist.

The bearded fellow looked at the other passengers. He noticed they all had the same expressions on their faces. Stoic shields over the emotions inside. Tight lips and eyes that looked down at a forty-five degree angle was the style they adored. The bearded man bit his lower lip and then stood up.

“Where is everyone headed?” The brown woman, the white woman and the black fellow at the end looked up at the bearded man. Nobody answered.

“Come on now, where is it that everyone is going?” No one answered. The white girl shifted her attention back to her tablet. The black man stared at the tall bearded man from across the train car. The bearded man looked at the brown woman who turned her head to look out the window but only saw her reflection due to the blackness of the tunnel going by.

“How sad. You guys let fear get the better of you.” The girl with the tablet glanced over and thought that this bearded fellow must be a preacher or a crazy rambling homeless man. Although his clothes weren’t torn or dirty enough for him to completely look homeless.

“What’s your story miss? Where are you going?” The woman in the bourka didn’t turn around to look directly at him. Instead she saw his reflection on the window she was staring into. The man looked at her face through that same reflection. She looked sad to him.

The bearded man noticed the tan man with the headphones was starting to pay attention to the moment. He still bobbed his head with the music coming from his headphones. The black man in the army jacket peered over as well. The bearded man walked towards them.

“Hey young man. Would you kindly tell me where you’re headed?” The tan man looked up at the bearded fellow but just pulled out his MP3 player and increased the volume. The other passengers could hear the beats of the house music he was hearing. The bearded man looked over at the black man.

“How about you? Where are you off to?”

“Look man, I don’t want no trouble.” The black fellow looked ahead at the posters on the wall across from him.

“I’m just asking a question,” But the black man didn’t give a response this time. The bearded man turned around and saw the young woman with the glasses gazing at her tablet.

“Never mind.” He walked by and the young woman followed him with her eyes as he went back to his seat. He wasn’t staring at anyone this time, he just looked ahead with his hands resting on his knees.

I wonder where he’s going, she thought.

What a weirdo, the tan man thought.

Please don’t bother me, the brown lady thought still looking at her reflection.

Never a shortage of weirdoes in this town, the black man thought. The man with the beard didn’t look at any of them. He didn’t seem sad or annoyed. He just looked ahead.

So much fear they hold, he thought. The subway finally reached its destination and all five passengers stood up. The bearded man smiled and stepped outside before everyone else and when each of them came out he said to them,

“Don’t let fear turn you into a fool.” He handed them each a business card. It read Dr. Adam Dukas, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapist and Motivational Social Psychologist.

Each of the passengers left the subway and headed to their homes. The tan man chucked the card right next to a garbage can. The brown woman couldn’t read English so she threw the card away into the garbage.

The black man and the white young woman scanned over their cards. They went in different directions down the street. The girl sat on her couch in her apartment and looked up this Dr. Dukas. Apparently he gave lectures and wrote books about how people let the modern fear of strangers handicap them.

After reading the card a few times, the black man walked back to the subway to find Dr. Dukas. But he was gone. The black man looked at the card and then looked around the empty streets. It was late. It was dark. And he felt lonely as he headed home.