She pt III
Read:
She-intro
She pt II
~~~~
She pt III
The man in the hat touches her shoulder...the woman turns with a start...
stopping, half turned...staring into the face of the stranger...even from here on the street she can
see that the woman is transfixed, as if her face were stopped in the instance of surprise, like
pausing a film midframe.
She wants to run into the train depot...fighting the sickly glue filling her soul...as if she were
walking at the bottom of the sea...pressure from every angle providing the friction of molasses as
she pushes herself...
She knows that the man in the hat is talking...she can't see him move...but she feels
dampness flowing
between these too seeming strangers...even as the seconds press against each other, their resistance slowing time, this Reality welling up resists the forward motion of time itself.
Like a california mudslide she witnessed when she was young, reality gathers itself to counter this friction. Light begins to shine through the back of the man in the hat...fading like smoke, as time pushes him back into whatever dream he came from.
The woman finally becomes unstuck...you can see in her face...mild surprise, as if the woman had felt the touch on her shoulder, but turned to see nothing. But just as suddenly...the muscles in her face all collapse at the same time, as if gravity had been tripled...a sadness so devoid of light that she can feel it from the street.
Unfrozen she runs into the train depot. She hears the train coming, and she thinks she knows what it means. Digging in her purse for her fare card she pushes thru the turnstyle and tears up the stairs, bursting out onto the platform to see the woman getting precariously close to the edge of the platform as the train approaches....
She sees the woman put her arms out as if she were going to fall into a cool pool on a steamy day...she grabs the woman's left hand and pulls back...the woman turns...hatred...sheer foul anger directed at her...yanking her arm back at the same time as the train pulls up and begins braking...she holds on just long enough to stop the woman from falling in front of the train...instead the woman bounces off the side...cold metal tearing into her flesh...blood and teeth scatter as they both fall to the platform.
She opens her eyes, she is laid out on a stretcher being checked out by a medic.
Lights...cops...ambulances...she feels as if she had just woken from a
nightmare...but she is not in her bed. She overhears the train conductor telling the cops how she saved this crazy woman from leaping in front of his train.
The medic taking her pulse says "welcome back...looks like you've had a busy day" smiling at her, perhaps he perceives some kind of camaraderie, but she can only look at him with sadness...as her eyes begin to cloud up....she knows she did well tonight...she was able to understand and move when the time came, that must be a victory...mustn't it?
...but the only words that run thru her terrified mind...as they have each time it comes to her...
Why? WHY!?!? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?!?!?!?!
She-intro
She pt II
~~~~
She pt III
The man in the hat touches her shoulder...the woman turns with a start...
stopping, half turned...staring into the face of the stranger...even from here on the street she can
see that the woman is transfixed, as if her face were stopped in the instance of surprise, like
pausing a film midframe.
She wants to run into the train depot...fighting the sickly glue filling her soul...as if she were
walking at the bottom of the sea...pressure from every angle providing the friction of molasses as
she pushes herself...
She knows that the man in the hat is talking...she can't see him move...but she feels
dampness flowing
between these too seeming strangers...even as the seconds press against each other, their resistance slowing time, this Reality welling up resists the forward motion of time itself.
Like a california mudslide she witnessed when she was young, reality gathers itself to counter this friction. Light begins to shine through the back of the man in the hat...fading like smoke, as time pushes him back into whatever dream he came from.
The woman finally becomes unstuck...you can see in her face...mild surprise, as if the woman had felt the touch on her shoulder, but turned to see nothing. But just as suddenly...the muscles in her face all collapse at the same time, as if gravity had been tripled...a sadness so devoid of light that she can feel it from the street.
Unfrozen she runs into the train depot. She hears the train coming, and she thinks she knows what it means. Digging in her purse for her fare card she pushes thru the turnstyle and tears up the stairs, bursting out onto the platform to see the woman getting precariously close to the edge of the platform as the train approaches....
She sees the woman put her arms out as if she were going to fall into a cool pool on a steamy day...she grabs the woman's left hand and pulls back...the woman turns...hatred...sheer foul anger directed at her...yanking her arm back at the same time as the train pulls up and begins braking...she holds on just long enough to stop the woman from falling in front of the train...instead the woman bounces off the side...cold metal tearing into her flesh...blood and teeth scatter as they both fall to the platform.
She opens her eyes, she is laid out on a stretcher being checked out by a medic.
Lights...cops...ambulances...she feels as if she had just woken from a
nightmare...but she is not in her bed. She overhears the train conductor telling the cops how she saved this crazy woman from leaping in front of his train.
The medic taking her pulse says "welcome back...looks like you've had a busy day" smiling at her, perhaps he perceives some kind of camaraderie, but she can only look at him with sadness...as her eyes begin to cloud up....she knows she did well tonight...she was able to understand and move when the time came, that must be a victory...mustn't it?
...but the only words that run thru her terrified mind...as they have each time it comes to her...
Why? WHY!?!? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?!?!?!?!
posted by Johnny Lightheart at 12:26 PM
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