Absurd Girl

I rode the metro one stop too far. 

I got off the train and spun around on the platform to find myself cloaked in night, with stars sunk low in a hazy light. 

I whispered to the darkness but only echoes answered. A beckon that swept under my skin. I shrugged the night, and asked if it was lonely too. But only the void glared back.  So I sat down, crossed my legs. My heart was heavy in my chest, and I wondered if the next train would be on time, or if it too, was cloaked in night. 

Seconds crept, or maybe flew. The only thing I knew for certain were  the fingers on my hands and the toes on my feet. I wiggled them and they wiggled back. A hum appeared in my eyes. The sound of darkness, surely. I hoped to leave this place when the train arrived. 

It was some time later, or maybe no time at all, that I heard the clack and squeal of metal wheels. “It must be time,” I thought.  Rose to my feet, dusted my pants, heaved a sigh. I shielded my eyes as a bright beam shone, a cone of fine light, piercing the way forward. The train, finally, the train. 

The beam grew stronger, closer, coming my way. I held my breath. The light refracted. Up and up,  an invisible wall, bent at a sharp corner from the ground. This was no train at all, I thought. I exhaled. The beam blinked out with my final breath. And I felt alone again.

Then a rain came throbbing through the darkness. My lashes blinked the wet away. I hadn’t noticed the cold before. How long had I been here? How long would I stay? The thoughts danced and played, looped and circled, my mind a limp circuit, pooling and unspooling. 

Finally, I heard a sound. It wasn’t loud, it wasn’t quiet. But it was even,  and it was there. (Wasn’t it?) I moved toward it. Tracing it through the black. There was no space forward, but the time. I circled it as best I could, searching, seeking, scouring. The source must be near. I must be close. I must be heading somewhere.

Wait…

I found it! 

The sound was no sound at all, but a spell. One with tinkling charms and silver bells. I grasped it tight and felt it pull me under, a falling spell. One with pride and purpose, to take me down. Through the night,  the darkened plane, stars, beams of light: I fell. And I fell.

Until…

A stream of sunlight filtered through the train car, and I felt safe and warm. My stop was the next one. I must remember to get off. Can’t be late for work.