Train Kept a-Rollin'

I sat reading. It was late, & I was heading home to my apartment in Astoria, Queens. Some conductors of the NYC subway would allow passengers to get on trains which weren't yet leaving. Standing for long periods on a subway platform, staring at the train you were planning to take, was the norm.

In my peripheral vision, I'd noticed movement. This was someone getting on the train through the one of doors down from me. This car had four doors on each side, one just next to me. I could see this man walk up & past me to take a seat next to the door across from me. He was mumbling in what sounded like a foreign language. I continue reading.

Shortly, another man steps in through the same door the first man had & sits down next to that door. At this point, the man across from me begins speaking more loudly. He's still speaking in another language, so I continue reading. I can see the second man has turned his head in the direction of the first. I look up at the first man, looking at the second man, then to the second man. He looks at me, then opens a news paper, attempting to ignore the man babbling.

I look back at the first man to find him -- still speaking in another language -- looking directly at me. As I sit there looking at this man, I realize that he's speaking in what sounds like a combination of Hebrew, Arabic and some other language. While it certainly didn't make any sense to me, the flow & rhythm of what he was saying appeared to have context. It had obviously made sense to him.

I wanted to return to my book, but I felt that I couldn't take my gaze from this man's eyes. He became more intense, & I kind of felt that I was gaining some sense of what he was saying. I can't explain how or why, but it seemed he was saying something about a woman I'd known for a year or two but had disappeared some months before. I found the entire situation -- that there was any possibility that I could understand a single word he was saying, as well as that this had somehow reminded me of this friend. I smiled & laughed to myself.

Then, this man who was staring right at me & blabbering endlessly, stood up & rushed out the door next o me. The second man looked up & gave me a look implying that he was pleased. I shrugged & went back to my book.

Some minutes now pass. I suddenly feel something on the platform. There was no movement that I'd noticed. I just sensed something there.

I turn to look out the doorway to find the missing Margaret standing there looking up the platform. It took a few seconds for me to react because of how odd this situation was. I leap up to call to Margaret. As I do so, the doors of the subway car close. I take a stop toward the door & wave my hands trying to get Margaret's attention. She continues staring at something up the platform that I can't see.

Now the train begins to move. But, somehow, it's running in the wrong direction. I can't remember which train it was, but it was a mid-town train which ran from mid-town Manhattan out to Queens. There were barriers at the end of the tracks at this station, so the train could go no further west.

But it was.

I look at the second man to enter the car -- the only other passenger with me -- but he finds nothing strange happening & is still reading his news paper. I look back to the platform to see Margaret is still just staring at something & not looking in the direction of the train now pulling out.

I sit down & wonder why it's taking so much longer to get to the next -- the only other stop in Manhattan on this line. The train still seems to be running west, which I know couldn't happen, & is taking a very long time to get to the next station, which normally takes little time at relatively the same speed this train is now going.

But the train does, finally, arrive at the other Manhattan station. It continues on & arrives at Queensboro Station where I'm transferring to another train toward Astoria.

I get off the train to find everything appears normal despite the rather Twilight Zone-like episode I'd just experienced.