Commuting in the Dark

It’s been a long day and you’re catching a ride home way later than usual.  You know what lies ahead.  You are about to cross into the illusory world of the night commute.

After a brief walk through a city synthetically lit by giant led screens and flashing advertisements you reach the station.  You’re wearing earbuds but in your red-eyed stupor you have yet to push play as you wait amongst the few others for your track to be announced.  The uncharacteristic emptiness of the station is somehow both calming and disquieting.  You push play.

The number 4 appears on the board under track next to your train.  With underwhelming eagerness you make your way through the empty station to track 4 where you quietly board the train.  Even though only one seat is occupied you aimlessly walk through a car or two before you choose a seat and settle in for your journey through the night.

The fluorescent lighting and sky blue walls create the aura of an ethereal waiting room.  A burnt orange sign at the front of the car flickers from, “Public Transit,” to “Next Stop Is.”  You stare at it for a few minutes before turning your head towards the lit platform you just crossed over from. 

The whistle sounds and slowly, car by car, the commuter train enters the night.  Your surroundings seem to shrink.  There is no longer an outside as you stare into the window trying to see beyond your own eyes in the reflection.  Suddenly you’re Socrates reincarnated philosophizing on the meaning of life, why we’re all here, and wondering if there will be anything good on TV when you get home. 

The blackness outside is broken only by clusters of dotted lights that might as well be stars in the night sky because you can’t tell the difference.  Each station becomes a small glowing island in the night standing alone in the darkness amongst the man-made stars. 

The burnt orange sign eventually reads, “The Next Station Stop is” a brief moment passes before the sign changes to read, “Yours.”  You stand-up and head to the door waiting patiently to cross back over into a reality in which this station stop is no longer just an island in the night.  Once again the whistle sounds and the train continues into the night bridging the gap between each celestial station on the wonderfully mind-numbing monotony that is the daily commute.