A man sits peacefully on a bench with his eyes shut. He has somewhere to go but is in no real hurry to get there, so he sits on the empty platform and listens. He hears the distant hum of fans circulating air and mysterious mechanical sounds from deep within the tunnels. He hears footsteps echo as two other passengers join him on the platform and a vague chattering as they walk past him, one in soft soled trainers, one in clicking heels. A gentle gust of warm air on the left side of his face is the first sign of a train approaching. He strains to hear the first hollow rumblings from the tunnel as the rails start to sing and oscillate.
The rumbling turns into thundering and the gentle breeze turns into a gale as the train breaks out of the tunnel into the platform, wheels bang-banging across joins in the rails as it decelerates. A couple of seconds of silence follow before the sweep of the opening doors tells him it's time to open his eyes and get on the train.
Posted by mpk at May 30, 2004 3:03 PM | TrackBack