New York Wonderland

7:52 a.m

According to the tape labels, this car is seven carts down.  How did she get there so fast?  She doesn’t seem winded.  Is that even the same girl?  She has the same face, but, her long brown hair is now scraggly and unkempt.  She seems nervous stepping into the train.  She keeps looking around, as if watching out for something.  There are more people on this car.  A few people look up at her as she steps into the train, but quickly go back to what they are doing.  She slowly walks to the pole in the middle of the car and leans against it.  A woman pushes past her to read a train map.  She does it without any regard for the girl, almost as if she didn’t see her.  Brunette #2 pouts and sighs.  A child giggles nearby and she looks up, the sound catching her attention.  She cannot see the child, and so, goes back to her own world.  She looks towards the woman who pushed her earlier and her eyes rest on an ad above the train map.  She stares at it, reading it, and again, her eyes glaze over.  Her eyes stay that way as she walks to the woman from earlier.  She waves her hands in front of the woman, and the woman….doesn’t react?  The girl tries again, but gets no response, so she moves to the next person.  It is a young man with a hat and low-hanging jeans.  He is sitting with his legs spread.  She steps in between them and waves her hands in front of him.  He does not respond.  She stomps her foot, but to no avail.  She tries this with a few other people, but no one notices her.  She pinches herself, hard, but doesn’t seem to feel it.  She touches the pole, but does not grab onto it for some reason, for some reason, acting like she cannot.  She smiles and the train turns, with the sun shining through one side of the train.  As it does, she seems to illuminate and people look up from their phones or books.  Some of them seem shocked.  The last person she was trying to get the attention of, an old man, lurches back into his seat, obviously surprised that she is in front of him.  People are gasping and covering their mouths.  They are surprised to see her, as if she wasn’t there the whole time.  She also seems surprised and people reach out to her, but she evades them all.  They look at their hands, as if they touched her and their hands went right through her.  The train stops at Queensboro Plaza, and she rushes off, with people staring at her in amazement.  She does not get on another car.