People on the Subway

Just riding the subway home, you know, long day, it's cold out, don't feel like reading so I just watch. People on and off. This woman comes in, brown, young, older than me though, not a student I don't think, red toque and red gloves and black coat she sits down in the middle of three seats. Poor subway etiquette. A man sits down next to her, pure business, nice suit and nice shoes and nice jacket, nice haircut, nice jawline, where's the car today buddy? The woman doesn't move over even though she has an empty seat to her right. She must be new at this big city thing. Nobody has told her that the idea is to stay as far away from strangers as possible. They leave eventually and all I have is my reflection looking back at me now; he's slightly sinister there, stony faced and impassive, I keep waiting for him to wink at me, scratch his nose in defiance of my own limp arms.

A girl gets on, a tall, dark skinned teen-aged girl, slightly awkward in that way that growing kids are, in that way that makes you want to say hey, no, it gets better eventually, but there she is blocking me from that doppledanger, so I have to find somewhere else to look. The floor is dirty, melted snow and salt stains and the occasional newspaper. Are subways ever cleaned? Do they just accumulate dirt from the day they go into service to the day they retire, the grime and wear piling up for twenty years? Somebody must clean them.

At Pape a Greek girl gets on, and I know she's Greek because she has that look that Greek chicks get, the sense of power and confidence, the loud voice, she's probably named Toula, Vasoula, Maroula, and that hair: an explosion of blonde curls, more than can be reasonably explained, hair just splashing everywhere around her, how much does that cost to colour? I feel like I know her already. She's into clubbing, smoking, yelling, she has a condo probably, her parents bought it for her, subsidised it at least, after running that bakery for thirty-five years they have some money to spend. She speaks perfect Greek. She works as a secretary somewhere, somewhere nice; if the makeup is any indication she knows how to take of herself.

Right, anyway. I get off eventually too, me in the skinny jeans and the leather bomber jacket and the thinning blonde hair and the designer glasses with the scratched lenses. Is that what other people see? What pigeonhole do I get stuffed into? Assuming they even look. Everybody worrying about their own problems, everybody with their eyes down and the headphones on.

Listening to Strangers

Innis, second floor, is a good place to crash when you have those breaks that stretch their welcome. Is that even a common problem for university kids? I don't know. I've got such a tenuous hold on this pace anyway. I do my thing, and every one else does theirs and hopefully we both survive at the end. Innis is good because the place is lax and unwound and the students are all film buffs and eavesdropping on students who have invested OSAP dollars into watching movies is way more rewarding than eavesdropping on chemistry students, or math students, or whatever it is serious people with boring problems enroll in. I don't know. This was overheard, filtered, paraphrased, from snippets overheard on a quiet Monday afternoon. I have catching up to do. Nobody is ever going to offer me that money to work in Dubai at this rate.

He got a job offer in Dubai
Dubai?
Yeah I know. As an oil technician
Man
I know
That’s insane
They’re going to pay him 500,000 a year
What?
And he still has to think about it
Only Greg would have to think about it
I know
What’s Deb saying about it?
If my fiancé got offered a 500,000 dollar a year thing in Dubai I’d be all over it
To be fair it is a big change
Dubai is half way around the world
And they’re getting married
It’s a lot to go through all at once
Still, 500,000
Yeah, still if someone gave me a ticket to Dubai I’d take it
No hesitation?
None
Dubai is like on the other side of the world
I wonder what it’s like to live there
Yeah it must be crazy over there
It’s a big decision
Deb’s dad thinks Greg is stupid
Really?
It’s such a big opportunity
Yeah if he doesn’t take it
Hey guys
Oh hey
Hi
What’s your take
On what
Have you heard about Greg?
Who?
He doesn’t know Greg
Oh yeah
Who?
Well whatever. If you were offered a job in Dubai for 500,000 a year would you take it
Depends on what it is I guess
Oil technician
Yeah oil work
I don’t know anything about that stuff
Well if you did know
Why would I ever know about that
Ok, like if Chapters offered you 500,000 to move to Dubai