Friday, June 8, 2012

Hotness

Memorial Day weekend, 2012;
The hottest Memorial Day weekend in history.
Train to tower was packed with both sun worshipers and moon children.
Nary could a seat be found.

Dogging sweaty passengers until there are cars no more.
Look up; it shines like a golden beacon in the night.
Run, run before someone else sees -
The one last open seat on the train.

Victory! Claim the prize.
Two less barking dogs.
A knee that doesn’t hurt nearly as much.
A body at rest.

Catch up on Facebook updates, get ticket out.
Sound of riding the rails and –
Giggling kisses?
Turn to look, ever so carefully.

A young, early 20’s couple sit in two seats facing each other.
He, dark skinned perhaps from India. Curly hair, mustache -
Wearing white pants, white shirt and a red bowtie.
Her a light skinned lady with long brown hair and many freckles.

She is wearing some kind of puffy white dress.
Puffy sleeves with lace, um, “things” on them.
Kid you not; she has a white flower in her hair.
Can’t tell much more because they are kissing.

They are kissing.
Kissing.
And kissing.
Demonstrating that America is, indeed, still a melting pot.

There must be some more Facebook posts.
Damn!  Nothing.  Evidently everyone else has real lives, too.
Book, book, is there a book to read?
Damn! Nothing.

The scenery passes by.
“Tickets!”
A conductor has never before been such a welcome sight.
He stamps it and moves on to the couple.


“Tickets.”
Giggle, smooch, smooch.”
“Tickets!”
Giggle, smooch, smooch.”

“TICKETS!”
Giggle, smooch, smooch.”
Whisper – “tickets?”
Giggle, smooch, smooch.”

The conductor looks momentarily around.
All who were looking one second ago seem to found a newspaper or something.
Oh look there’s a Facebook post from last week, let’s re-read it.
The conductor shrugs and walks to the next car.

30 minutes later train is at tower.
The dogs and knees are happy if the faster ones leave first.
Including, thank God, the couple.
The platform is nearly deserted.

The conductor is looking over his ticket book.
Eyes are caught.
“Hot day, eh”?
He smiles: “Going to need a cold shower today, man!”

The dogs bark.
The knees pop.
Distance is tread, each others laughter still echoing in the ears.
Yup, gonna need a cold shower tonight, for sure.

K.J.K. 06-08-2012