A man wears a ridged, powder-blue dust mask on his forehead, resting on the bridge of his nose, blinding his third eye.
Transit Authority #141
A man runs to catch the bus, and a golden retriever and a golden doodle on their morning walk see this and start to wag their tails, ready for play time.
Transit Authority #140
A man sits down behind me and lets a tangle of spittle drip to the floor. He smells like grout in a dive bar.
Transit Authority #139
"When did you serve, you a Vietnam-era vet?"
"Yeah."
"How old are ya?"
"Sixty-six."
"Sixty-six? You know you're eligible for that pension-"
"Yeah I just set that up-"
"How long you serve?"
"Three years. Honorable discharge."
Transit Authority #138
A young mother with her toddler in a papoose, shrouded in a blanket when it's 14 degrees, and she's holding her phone six inches in front of his face to distract him with his cartoons. He turns his head, and finally with a tiny closed fist begins to punch her on her lips, harder and harder until she gently scolds him and puts the phone away.
Transit Authority #137
A triple dagger tattoo in the bristles over a man's carotid artery, under his jawline.
Transit Authority #136
No lunch boxes today. Instead, everyone has wrapped food in plastic bags or gift bags.
Transit Authority #135
A child screaming and hitting her nanny on the bus.
Transit Authority #134
A young man shambles up to a girl and she replies to his greeting, "I don't have anything".
"Motherfucker, I got $200 jeans, $400 shoes, $5000 watch...what the FUCK do I want from YOU?!"
"You're harassing me on the train, get the fuck away from me dude."
"Motherfucking white people stupid as shit, I am NEVER taking this Brown Line again, I mean NEVER."
He pulls out his phone and shows his Instagram page.
"THIS is who you talking about, thousands of followers, shit, hundreds, thousands of dollars a day, hell I'll buy your house and make you move out, dumb BITCH!"
And his acquaintance is doubled over laughing at the end of the car.
"I'm wearing four thousand dollars wortha outfit and what'd yours cost? $20 altogether? What could I want from your broke ass?!"
The girl has closed her eyes, and breathes evenly.
Transit Authority #133
A young man with hands in pockets, stealing glances at the girls wrapped in their winter outerwear.
Transit Authority #132
A woman lint-rolling her armpit, eyes on the skyline.
Transit Authority #131
In the billowing snows, two photographers stalk along the opposite platform. One makes candid pictures of the waiting travelers. The other walks like a workman to the end of the platform, looks down, looks up and all around, and finally shoots into the whiteout.
Transit Authority #130
The gridded shadow of a flock of pigeons sliding up a brick wall with windows.
A construction worker in the street up to their waistline, moving tools and asphalt.
A man in a parking lot holding a rope connected to the top of a building.
Transit Authority #129
Blond hair doesn't grow from the scars on a man's head.
Transit Authority #128
A petitioner on the platform, shooting fish.
Transit Authority #127
Ways to entertain oneself on the winter-time bus:
- observe the way light washes over the passengers and furniture
- free-associate with stop names, like Churchill
- Count pom-poms
- watch heads in hats bob and sway with the contour of the road
- read a graphic novel about city life
- listen to the conversations in Spanish and try to learn a word or phrase
- marvel at the brave and freezing pedestrians
- observe the traffic, and learn the bus driver's temperament by the kindnesses and generosities they offer other motorists
- think of a project you'd like to undertake, and visualize the steps
Transit Authority #126
Two large men gesticulating the fantasy of a street fight, talking about being able to take a punch, shake it off, shadowboxing, pumping each other up. Plenty of seats around, but they won't sit.
"Lemme tell you something about you bro, when I saw you hit that motherfucker, he didn't get up off the ground."
Transit Authority #125
A CTA staff with a blind guy on his arm, leads the fella to the door and shows him in. People make way, and the guy finds his way to his seat.
"Motherfucker, you're supposed to get me to a seat," he says.
Transit Authority #124
A man in tied-off cook's pants produces a clear plastic cup from inside his jacket. He pops off the lid and removes a moistened paper towel from the cup, one of two of these, and stuffs the other towel into the cup before snapping the lid back on and fitting the cup into his back trousers pocket. The fresh paper towel he folds two times and clasping it in his hand, walks away.
Transit Authority #123
A pair of young event staff in the night, each one bearing a flower arrangement in a pot.
"I gotta find the way to get from the pink to the red."
"I think it's just Clark and Lake."
I nod, and interject, "He's right, but from here the pink goes out to Clinton, and all the way to 54th. We're already past the point of transfer." They thank me, and run through scenarios together:
- What if you get stranded out there?
- The pink runs until two, it'll be fine. And if it's not I'll jump it.
- What if you get caught jumping it and they call the cops?
- I'll be long gone by the time the cops show up.
- I like the way you think. You sure you don't want wanna just crash at my pad, man?
- Nah, I got stuff to do tomorrow morning.
- Wish I had some weed, man. Weed goes real well with this stuff, chills it out.
The orange comes, and then the pink. They bundle their potted plants carefully into their arms and are gone, a few cars back.