Most of us were asleep in the last car of the 2 Express uptown. The train was making all local stops, at this time of the night, so it was a long trip. At around 1am the few people in the car were of the kind who are afraid of those who ride the train after midnight. So it is quite possible that everybody was as asleep as I was, with my eyes sly open from time to time to see if I was still in the right train moving closer and closer to home. Soon the car I remembered before opening my eyelids was very different from the one I saw when I actually opened my eyes. Around 66th street the lines of reality and dream were completely blurred. Was this man across from me really this worker in his 50’s returning from somewhere downtown?, or was I pressed into the corner of one of the old red-bird subway cars, and across from me was a woman solving puzzles on one of the last pages of a book. Was I riding on the 2 at all? or was it the 7 going to flushing, the city skyline moving slowly outside of the scratched windows?
One person in the car was definitely asleep and would probably wake up somewhere in the bronx in a few hours. She was a woman probably in her 40’s with long black hair and an ivory colored skin. She traveled with a large bag which she used as a pillow. The entire bench area across from me was now her bed. She spoke loudly and cursed in her sleep and one more reason why everybody might have been pretending to sleep could have been her left hand quite deep in her leather pants. Her dreams were apparently quite vivid. Not sure they were all natural, or all the human kind.
I almost missed my stop. Jumped out the door as the announcer prepared for “ North, 110th Street” after warning of the closing doors. The worker across from me got out as well.
I took a short walk on Broadway, just a few blocks. The snow was almost melted now. New York smells like winter.