A Simple Story (Prelude and Verses-Edited-) (standard:romance, 3765 words) [1/5] show all parts
Author: sickboy	Updated: Oct 22 2002	Views/Reads: 3465/2735	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
2 hearts crossed, one was taken...

Prelude 

“You got a name?” 

“Does it matter?” 

“What?” 

“Does it matter? I mean, does it matter if I had a name? Knowing a name
doesn't make a difference as to who I am or what kind of a person I am 
or what your impression of me would be... so does it matter?” 

“Guess not...” 

... 

... 

“Sue...” 

“Kay...” 

1800 hours. The station was packed, invaded almost completely by collars
and ties and suitcases intoxicated with the subconsciously elevated 
anxiety of rocketing to their destinations. I said “almost”, ‘cause I 
was there too. I was no collar or tie or suitcase. I was an un-tucked 
shirt and cargo pants, a backpack on my back without any hyped-anxiety, 
heading for the other side of the city. I said “almost”, ‘cause you 
were there too. You weren't a collar or a tie or an office dress for 
that matter. You were a fitting white T-shirt, blue jeans, a relatively 
tiny backpack and straight, dark, beautiful short hair with coolness 
beyond comprehension. You sat on one of the benches with a 
Discman-headset on (not the huge, round kitchen-sponge-lookalike type, 
just the tiny, fit-in-your-ear-type) and a book in your hand (not the 
giant type, just a small modest paperback.) Right there, in the middle 
of all the stereotypes and all the anxiety and the tiredness, in the 
middle of the rush and the boredom and the sudden slowness of passing 
time, you were like a green, luxuriant tree sitting smacked in the 
middle of a lifeless concrete jungle. Fresh, cool, calm, and strikingly 
different. 

Okay, so I didn't notice you that much at first. What do you expect? I'm
no talent scout. Living the lives we live, we've forgotten to look 
around ourselves so often till we never realized that the most 
wonderful things are always found in the most unexpectedly common 
places... Takes the fun out of living, doesn't it? 

“Dung, dong. Dung, dong.” 

The much-awaited train-doors finally opened, only to reveal the contents
of its belly bearing a striking resemblance to a freshly opened 
sardine-can. Suddenly, the entire platform turned into a giant aquarium 
with its floodgates opened: sardines crushing each other, forcing their 
way out to the open sea while other fishes from the platform fought and 
squeezed and pushed to get into the long, opened sardine can. 

At a certain point, all were seemingly frozen in a moment where the two
huge waves of land-pseudo-aquatic-creatures collided, each crashing 
towards the opposite direction. Yet, amazingly the freeze lasted for 
only a second or two, then in some miraculous way, the two waves 
crashed safely to the other side. I hate to admit it, but I was one of 
the fishes who nearly gave my life away suffocating through that one or 
two seconds and could proudly announce that I am, now, a sardine for 
the next 45 minutes... That's when I really noticed you. But then 
again, who wouldn't? For there you remain seated, with your headset and 
your book and your coolness while the platform rumbled for the past two 
seconds. Then, after the collision, you closed your book, calmly stood 
up, and walked into the train while asking to be excused, just in time 
to feel the mild breeze of the doors closing behind you. 

“The approximate stationary time of every train at a station is 7
seconds. Minus two halves of a second for the opening and closing of 
the doors and minus 2-3 seconds of human traffic, that gives about 3 
seconds minimum to board the train. Ample time.” 



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