The Subway, Part 3

Here is the 3rd and final and, I must say my favorite, part of the Subway story. Ah, Stewart. Make sure you read part 1 and part 2 first

Stewart looked in the mirror and sighed. Why do these things always happen to me? I’m just an ordinary guy, with an ordinary job. I can’t walk in to my ordinary job looking like this. I just can’t, what will they do? What will they think? I just can’t, can’t do it, I’ll have to call in sick or something. Stewart walked out of the bathroom toward the phone and picked it up. What am I going to tell them? I can’t say I’m sick; I’m a horrible liar. They’ll think I’m just goofing off or something. He realized that he never actually had goofed off before, but he didn’t know if the people at his work knew that.

Thinking back to the day before, Stewart groaned. He had met a girl online months before and had friendly conversation. She only liked men with black hair. Oh, what a coincidence, he had said. I have black hair! Then she wanted to meet. Sounds great, Stewart said, name the place! She did and it was set up. Stewart, however, had blond hair. No problem, he thought. I’ll just dye my hair black, she’ll never know. During his incredibly short lunch break, he ran to the store to buy hair dye. The clerk gave him a funny look when he paid for it, but Stewart was in too much of a hurry to notice. The date was set for 7:00; Stewart got home from work at 6. As soon as he got home he set to work dying his hair, working quickly. He got dressed, washed out the dye and stood in front of the mirror to assess his new look. His jaw had nearly dropped to the floor. Standing in front of him was not the attractive, black haired man he expected. Instead was a blue haired idiot. In panic he checked the dye box. Sure enough, it was blue hair dye. Not black. Blue. Not knowing what else to do, Stewart had canceled the date. No explanations, just couldn’t make it. He felt bad for ditching the girl, but he couldn’t show up looking like a blue haired idiot. Not when she expected an attractive black haired man.

Stewart checked the time and automatically went into panic mode; he was late. Temporarily forgetting about his dilemma, he finished getting dressed and rushed out the door. On the elevator he realized that his hair was still blue. Suck it up, Stewart. You’re the idiot who dyed your hair blue. You can figure out something to say at work.

He walked quickly to the subway station, trying not to be noticed. Once there, Stewart hid in a corner where he wouldn’t be seen. It was bad enough to have blue hair, he didn’t need all these strangers to notice it and make fun of him. The train came and he quickly got on it. He sat in the first seat he saw and sunk in his chair. Everyone who walked by seemed to be scrutinizing him, wondering what kind of idiot he was. He glared at them. Maybe, I can convince them that I did it on purpose. That’s right! I want to have blue hair, I like having blue hair. By the reaction of the old lady sitting a couple of seats over, his look just came out mean. Well, huh. That’s not what I meant, I don’t want to scare people. So he tried to change the look, not a mean look, just an I-mean-to-have-blue-hair look. The man across from him caught the new look and smiled at him. Stewart noticed several gaps in his teeth, and a twitch in the man’s eye. Oh, well I don’t know, I think I want to give him the mean look. He tried it but the man just smiled wider. Ugh. Well, never mind. I’ll just read my book and pretend I’m not here. Stewart pulled out the book that he was currently reading and tried to concentrate. A man came in and sat in the seat next to him. Stewart kind of scooted over to increase the distance between him and this new person. He realized that the further he moved, the more the man moved. He was trying to see the book. Stewart moved enough to let the man see his book. Ha! Once he discovers it’s a computer science book he’ll leave me alone. Sure enough, the man seemed to be not interested in computer science and turned his attention to someone else. A woman rushed in and the doors closed; she was completely out of breath and a little disorganized it seemed. Stewart’s eyes rolled and he sunk deeper into his chair. Geeze lady, you could just leave earlier and not have to run to the subway station. It’s not that difficult.

Stewart noticed the man next to him begin to stand. Oh man, what’s he doin'? The train just started, where does he think he’s going? The man offered his seat to the woman who couldn’t wake up on time, and she politely refused. He repeated his offer and again the woman refused. She doesn’t want the seat, man, leave her alone! Stewart felt like telling him, but he kept his mouth shut and pretended to read his book. The man shrugged his shoulders and moved to the other side of the subway car. Oh that’s effective. Now no one is going to sit in this perfectly good seat. Stewart decided that he was being rather negative about this whole affair and that it really wasn’t any of his business. Taking a few deep breaths, he went back to his book, trying to forget about the people in the car and his blue hair.

The ride was almost over when he felt someone’s eyes on him. His thoughts immediately turned toward the woman and sure enough, she was looking at him. The look on her face was a mix between terror and exhaustion. Huh. I didn’t even give her my mean look. I didn’t give her a look at all, what’s her problem? He started to feel uncomfortable and glanced up at the woman. She was reading something now, but he could tell she wasn’t really reading. Well, I do have blue hair. People with blue hair freak most people out. People with blue hair freak me out. Still, the sooner this subway stops the better. I just want to get to work without any problems. A ball dropped in his stomach as he remembered his current crisis and again started wondering what he was going to say when he got to work. Um, hi, I accidentally dyed my hair blue last night, don’t worry it will be gone in 40 washings. The subway stopped and everyone got off. Stewart barely noticed the woman scurrying away in the opposite direction.