The far off sound of an approaching train, a young woman with her little girl and a stroller, and an athletic looking black-clad young man. The actors are set. Action!
The young man strides along the hall concentrating on some private matter and comes to the top of the stairs. “Please! Take my child!” says a heavily accented voice behind him.
There stands the young woman trying to juggle a stroller and a three or four year old child.
“Alas, I cannot! My heart belongs to another”, he quickly replies as he swiftly walks up to the child. He towers above the little girl. She looks up at him with something that is not quite distrust, interrogation perhaps. He grins winningly and bows a courtly bow which almost brings his face to the child’s level, “Young lady, may I have this dance?” Her brown eyes open wide with amazement and undisguised delight. She shyly offers him her hand, he swoops her up, and in four great bounds they have flown down through the flights of stairs; the little girl screaming laughter all the way down.
He gently puts the child down and waits for the mother to catch up, then winks at the little girl and fades into the crowd before the mother can even thank him.
The subway train pulls in. The platform empties.
The train pulls out into a dark tunnel…
Fade to black.
Picture by Thomas Calveirole
What a sweet story and a great way to end my Sunday!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it. I love timezones: for you it concludes Sunday, for me it opens Monday. It feels like a another way of traveling through time.
ReplyDelete....Ah, a slight clue as to where you live.
ReplyDeleteGreat story, but having raised 2 children partially in New York City, I can't imagine feeling comfortable with a stranger running away down a flight of stairs with my child...or asking a stranger to help me. Am I tainted?
Awwww. How sweet. Innocence. I miss it.
ReplyDelete@Kass: Sometimes, in life, you just the need of strangers. That said, I was surprised the lady didn't ask the man to carry the stroller instead of the child. I was wondering if I should put that thought into the text, maybe have the man think it to himself, but decided against it. Too real. Too boring. It would break the rhythm of events... And no, you're not tainted, just smart and consequently, cautious. BTW, there are ton of obvious clues where I live on this blog.
ReplyDelete@Annie: Me too... I need to work on my aim. ; j
I think I have been reading too many crime stories because I was waiting for the man to steal the child, or the women to be a spy. Instead it paints a great picture and makes me want more. There doesn't always need to be evil.
ReplyDeleteHa, thanks for the kind words, but this snapshot can only be continued in your imagination.
ReplyDeleteNope, the child and the microfilm stay put in this version of the story. But maybe the child was carrying an SD card in its clothes and the man discretely palmed it while carrying it down the stairs?
I wonder what made the mother so desperate to ask a stranger to hold her child. Perhaps the man wanted to frighten her.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice contrast to my usual time spent in a subway system to think of a man and child dancing.
I'd be tempted to say that sometimes fiction is stranger than reality... But of course this is a true story. I have no idea what drove that lady. Or what went through the guy's mind. I suspect the guy always goes down stairs. Maybe the lady thought it more natural ask someone to carry a child than a stroller? Really puzzling.
ReplyDeleteThere's nice little HBO movie made from stories people made in of their experiences in the subway... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120240/
Subway stories: tales from the underground.
All kinds of things happen in the subway. : j