SUBTERRANEAN SUBWAY STORIES I

Friday evening. The Times Square subway station at rush hour. Oh boy, am I looking forward to this. I'm trying to make my way all the way down the stairs to the platform, resisting the urge to push the woman in front of me. I gaze out at the masses swarming the platform... It's like "Exodus" - only nobody's leaving. Everyone is moving in slow motion like they're on a tour? They move along from girder to girder and they all gaze off into space like they're thinking, "Where am I? How did I get down here"? What ever happened to "step lively"? I finally reach the end of the platform and I wait for the train noticing a man to my left standing several feet away from me, his back up against a girder, wearing a blue baseball cap with little white palm trees painted on it and a large piece of thick black electrician's gaffer's tape plastered across his mouth. I could ask him why - but he couldn't answer me, so I decided to just step lively when the train pulled in. Some things you're just not meant to know.