Saturday, February 22, 2003

Has it been almost a

Has it been almost a week since I posted about public transit?  I shame myself.  It’s not like nothing’s going on out there.  Like the big guy, tall and stocky, tough in his watchcap and canvas coat, heavy-jawed and stubble-cheeked, who walked the landings at the subterranean Civic Center light rail station where my train stopped briefly.  His mouth was set in a hard frown and his eyes scanned the crowd like a hunter in a duckblind as he paced back and forth, holding up a quarter in his beefy hand, displaying it in a desparate, pleading gesture.  I saw his eyes catch those of another denizen of the landing, a thinner, squirrely guy in a tan trenchcoat with greasy long hair, hollow cheeks and a clenched stride.  Trenchcoat saw the quarter, saw the big guy coming at him, shrugged him off with a twitch of a shoulder and a dip of the head.  They passed each other wordlessly, the big guy’s eyes bugging and the muscles of his throat starting to strain.  The train doors closed; we pulled away.  The big guy kept pace for a moment, quarter still upraised, and then stopped and lowered his hand, doubled his fist around the coin.  His face reddened with rage and pain.  He started shouting but I couldn’t hear what he said.  I suspect it was an unarticulated ululation of despair.