Once outside the building she remembered all the things that she had forgotten, but it was too late now. Nothing too important. Hurrying through the crowd of people on the sidewalk, Melinda mentally went through all the things that she had to do that day. Sharply at 9 was the meeting with her boss that she couldn’t miss, and then was her presentation for her new project. Lunch was with her new coworkers, who would have a great influence on future promotions, followed by an appointment with a potential new client. The afternoon would be spent working on the many kinks the boss was sure to find in her project and planning her new presentation, which would be sooner than she could possibly be ready for. Invariably someone would come up with a new crisis that she had to fix which would keep her at work until 7 or 8 at least.
Melinda ran down the stairs, glancing at her watch. If she was lucky she would catch the subway and be semi on time to work. She saw with relief that the train had just gotten there and people were still loading and unloading. The doors closed right behind her as she jumped onto the train. A man stood up and offered her his seat. No thanks, she said, I’ll just stand. He smiled and said that he wanted to offer her his seat and he would be really happy if she would sit in it. Again Melinda declined and said she preferred to stand. A man with a twitch on the other side of the car gave her a look and then smiled; he was missing a few teeth. Melinda tried to smile back at him and look cheerful with little success. The man who had offered his seat had stood up even though she declined his offer and was now standing in a corner. She looked at him, contemplating the situation. That is a perfectly good seat right there, and if he’s not going to sit in it somebody should. But I told him I didn’t want it, how can I just go and sit in his seat now? That would be ridiculous. Besides, do I really want to sit in that seat? She turned her attention over to the people sitting in the seats next to it. On one side was an elderly looking lady, someone’s grandma. She looked nice enough. The guy on the other side though, he was questionable. It wasn’t just the way he seemed to be mumbling to himself. It was more the bright blue hair that intimidated her. He was reading a book and seemed to be completely engrossed in it. She looked at him, wondering if he was really reading his book or was just waiting for the perfect time to strike. The thought of the old lady sitting right there near this psycho sent chills up Melinda’s spine and suddenly she wished very badly to be somewhere else. The man with a twitch was still watching her, and the other man who had given up his seat seemed quite perturbed to see her still standing. Pretending not to notice these things, Melinda took a notebook out of her bag and began perusing her notes for her presentation later that day. She soon realized that she wasn’t really reading any of the words and immediately thought of the man with the blue hair doing the same thing. Quickly she glanced up at him to see that nothing had changed; he was still apparently engrossed in the book. Melinda gulped. She was apparently engrossed in her notebook yet not a word of it was reaching her brain. Oh how I want to be off this train! I would even be late for work to be off this train!
She noticed that the subway was slowing down and she wondered where they were. She looked at her watch and was shocked to discover that she had been riding for her full 7 minutes. They were now approaching her stop and her dream of getting off would be a reality. Melinda stepped off the train and said a quiet thank you when the man with blue hair went in the opposite direction as she did.
PS So as Laura obviously found too easy, and nobody else seems to care, the quote for last week, "Stay on target, stay on target" was from Star Wars. Of course. This week's quote nobody but maybe Julie will know, and even then the only reason I know it is because I was watching this show last week and I just thought this quote was so funny. From a Star Trek:TNG episode. You don't care about the details. But it's a funny quote.
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