TheBanyanTree: RANDOM STRANGERS

[Sharon Mack]

 Journal PromptThursday, May 13, 2004Imagine you are in a room with 50 random strangers........ RANDOM STRANGERS The inside of the station was ramshackle at best.  Trains down south were not like the Amtrak up north.  It was small and hot and had holes in the wall.  What windows there were had partial glass to none.  I thought about how bitter it must be in winter and decided it was bitter no matter what time of year.  Bitter and nasty and wet.  The hot and cold merely was the outside coming in.   People were everywhere.  Some spoke in low whispers to spouses or family members.  Four or five men stood against the walls with one foot up, the sole of their muddy boots or shoes against the wall and the other planted firmly on the floor.  They lit cigarettes, one after another, and took the smoke deep into their lungs, closing their eyes as though it were the best feeling in the world*to take that smoke down into their lungs.  I watched as they did it again and again until the burning ember of the ash met the yellowed calluses on the inside of their fingers, probably burned there long ago by many such cigarettes.  I thought they'd put it out and looked to the floor already forming a negative opinion of anyone who would stamp their cigarettes out on a floor, but the cigarettes were not forthcoming.  I looked up towards the men and saw them pinching the bitter end of the papered tobacco and drawing as though it were a joint, all of them making the same sucking noise as marijuana smokers do and once again they drew the smoke deep into their lungs*..then they flicked the cigarette outwardly, away from themselves and let it roll on the floor and linger.  They didn't move to stamp it out*.just let it burn while they lit up yet another.  Some lit the new cigarette with the old before tossing it to the ground, but they didn't stamp theirs out either.  The cigarettes rolled, meeting in the center of the room near a clogged drain.  I realized the floor was slanted that way.  It worked for the cigarette smokers*.kind of like a huge, middle-of-the-room ashtray. I turned my head, wishing for a bit of air.  The station was close and the air was humid.  Someone's body was unwashed and the urine smell burned my nose. I turned to see a filthy, unkempt little old man, nodding to no one in particular, behind me.  I tried to move away toward one of the open holes shaped like a window only to find that there was no room.  Children had been lifted up into the frames and their parents stood below.  Some waved folded up newspapers in front of their faces, trying to fend off the intolerable heat.  It wasn't working.  Sweat poured down their faces like tears.  It beaded on their foreheads and swam down the inclines of their noses.  It poured forth from under their eyes and dripped from their chins.  There were large wet spots under their arms reaching down almost to their waists.  One large woman who had her back to me was soaked through and the fabric of the back of her dress shone like watered silk, but I knew it was sweat.  I turned away from the window and moved to the door.  I went out onto the platform.  People were lined up at the ticket window trying to bargain their way onto the train but they were told it was full.  They would have to wait for the next train.  I could see the anger in their frames and in their faces.  They held themselves tight and moved in jerky spurts because they really didn't want to move at all.  It was too hot to move, too hot to be stuck here for another hour or more.  They bought the tickets for the next train. I looked up into the hazy sky.  Non-stop sun.  You could only see the yellow ball through the haze, but you could feel its heat bearing down on you.  It seemed to pick you out personal-like and focus its heat and rays right on you wherever you were, however you turned.  It became a personal thing.  I watched a dog with a small child scurry under the unused train cars left in the yard on the other side of the tracks.  It was dark under them and I saw them lower their bodies to just the right height to accommodate the old worn tracks rising up under them and the bottom of the cars hanging down over them, so as not to bang their heads or scratch their backs.  They found a large cluster of dandelion weeds, headless from lack of light and sank into them.  The boy lay on his back and crossed his legs sticking a long dried piece of grass in his mouth. He began to make small chewing motions with his mouth.  The dog turned on his back beside him and allowed the boy to rub his pink belly.  They seemed to be the only ones with any reasonable comfort in the fire of the day. I heard a train whistle and prayed fervently it was mine.  I just wanted to be on my way and out of this day.  I wanted to reach my destination in the dark of night and prayed that the lack of light would render the night cooler wherever I went.  I looked toward the inside of the station trying to catch sight of my bag.  I'd left it inside.  Moving slowly, I worked my way into the station and back towards the far wall where I had first entered the station. People had heard the whistle, too, and were beginning to move out to the platform. I wanted to avoid any body contact with the crowd and especially wanted to avoid the unwashed individuals.  I moved carefully, pulling myself into myself, keeping my arms bent toward me, turning sideways if need be, to get past the stragglers still left inside the building.  Most of the smokers were gone and the children had been lifted from the windows and were standing with their sweating mothers and fathers.     When I got to my bag I found the unwashed man with the urine smell sitting on it.  I gestured to the bag with one hand and pointed to myself with the other.  He smiled a toothless grin and bobbed his head up and down so hard his dirty hat fell to the floor.  The stink almost knocked me over.  I just wanted my bag.  I heard the train whistle blast through the station*.an announcement came over the loudspeaker announcing my train and destination.  I again motioned toward the bag and waved at him to get off.  His eyes glittered colorlessly and he squinted at me and shook his head no and pointed to himself.  I reached for the tag partially sticking out beneath his filthy pant leg.   "My name, "  I said and pointed to the words.  He shook his head no again. "Yes, "  I yelled.  "Yes, it's my bag*get off*my train is here." The brakes screeched as the train came to a full stop on the track.  I took the tickets out of my pocket and waved them at him.  I felt nauseated with the tension, heat and smell.   "Please, " I begged.  "I have to go.  I'll miss my train." He shook his head yes and smiled his toothless grin at me.  He waved me toward the train.  He wanted me to go.  He wanted my bag. I stepped forward and gave him a shove.  I hit him full on the chest.  He toppled over and landed on his backside.  I grabbed my bag not stopping to look to see if he was hurt or not.  I didn't care.  I just wanted to get out of there.  To get to the train.  To get to where I was going. I moved toward the car.  People were closing in and I gave up trying to avoid them.  I crashed and clashed and hung onto my bag.  I could smell the man as though he were next to me.  I realized his acrid scent was clinging to the bag and to my hands from touching him.  I wanted to wash but there was no time.   Reaching the car at last, I handed the trainman my ticket.  He tore it in half and handed me my stub.  As I moved away from him I saw his nose wrinkle up as though he smelled something bad.  It was the bag*I knew it.  I turned away and went up the three steps into the car and found a seat next to a window, which I opened as wide as I could, hoping that once we began to move air would spill over me and cool me as we rushed down the tracks.   I stood to put my bag on the shelf overhead.  As I pushed the suitcase onto the shelf, I noticed the tag.  It was a tag of another color.  It wasn't my tag at all.  I turned it over slowly.  It was yellow and tattered and there in a bold hand was a name*..a name not my own.  I gasped and the train lurched forward landing me in my seat next to the open window.