Photography © Shannon O’Connor
Train Rage, or How Covid Taught Us to Despise Public Transportation
Taking public transportation has always been a challenge. You’re stuck on a train with people you don’t know, and anything could happen. Throw in a pandemic, and economic issues, and commuters grow worse.
The workers upstream are primarily remote now, so they don’t have to experience the rage. It’s only the people on the bottom who have to deal with the madness every day.
I take the train frequently in the town where I live. I have seen some outlandish things since COVID burst into the world.
One day, in the summer of 2020, I saw a man rolling a joint on his shirt, then he proceeded to smoke it on the train. During rush hour. Nobody said anything to him. I moved to the other end of the train, and ignored him.
Recently, I saw two women drinking from a Gatorade bottle singing in the middle of the day on a Saturday. They were either drunk, high, or crazy, take your pick. It depressed me that people do that. And it’s frightening, because others don’t know what those people are capable of in that state.
I waited for a train for too long. It came, it was full of people, and everyone got out. Someone screamed the F word because they were disgusted that they had to be squished like livestock in a cattle car. I waited for the next train.
It’s always an adventure, but some days are worse than others.
I was on a train during rush hour, and some young men came in vaping cigarettes. A woman started screaming at them to stop smoking, and they laughed at her.
She got in their faces, and they started to push her.
She said she would call the police, and she pulled the lever on the train to stop it.
She said she would stab them if they didn’t stop, and pulled out a needle that looked like an Epi pen.
The train stopped and the young men ran out.
A police officer came, and the woman explained what happened.
I didn’t know how some commuters could be so unworldly. You have to be street smart in the city, and the best thing to do is not to say anything when people behave badly.
The police left, and an older woman sat next to the spastic woman.
“You shouldn’t let those kids make you angry,” she said to the woman. “They’re having a hard time.”
“And why is it any of your business?” the dangerous woman said.
“Because I don’t like to see people get hurt,” the woman said. “I used to be a teacher, and I know that kids misbehave because they’re having problems.”
“Or maybe they’re just assholes,” the woman said. “Do you ever think that? That they might be messed up?”
“Everyone’s having a hard time now, honey,” the kind woman said. “You have to give people a pass.”
“But they were breaking the law! And they should be punished!”
“It’s not your job to save the world. You should keep your mouth shut, and let people take care of their own problems.”
I decided I admired the kind woman. I wanted more people on public transportation to be like her. The spastic woman got off the train at the next stop, muttering to herself, clutching the Epi pen in her right hand.
I smiled at the kind woman.
“You’re brave,” I said.
“I’m trying to do that right thing.”
“People can be crazy.”
“Most people are fine; they simply need help. And we should do what we can for our fellow humans.”
“Yes, that’s true. Life is hard these days, isn’t it?”
“We have to keep going on,” she said. “We have no choice.”
After that, she said nothing. I waited until my stop, and I got off the train.
Life in cities can be dangerous, but that’s the way it is. COVID has made commuters weirder and angrier. Sometimes it might be better not to go anywhere. But if I did that, I would have no stories to tell.
Shannon O’Connor holds an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. She has previously been published in Oddball, as well as Wordgathering, 365 Tomorrows, Sci-Fi Shorts, and others. She lives in the Boston area and works in a hospital. She takes public transportation often, and it’s always an adventure.