Miss Subways: A Novel by David Duchovny

Author:David Duchovny [David Duchovny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374717568
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2018-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

LOVE TRAIN

FROM HER VANTAGE POINT on the ground, Emer could see the entrance to the subway, and that familiarity seemed like a good idea. She got herself up, walked to the end of the block, and went underground. She felt better immediately. She would be home soon. The train was not crowded at all. Her mind was fully occupied, sparking in all directions with the night’s Chinese fireworks. It was after eleven.

Emer closed her eyes, felt like she might nap on the way home. In spite of herself, by sheer habit, she searched above her head for something to read and found a Train of Thought:

Forgive me those rough words. How could you know that man is held to those whom he has loved by pain they gave, or pain that he has given—intricacies of pain.

—W. B. YEATS

Yeats again. The conductor on this line was no existentialist, but an Irish Romantic. She thought of her father and mother, she thought of herself, seemingly unencumbered by such intricacies, and none the better for that. The MTA must be on a Yeats kick, she thought; well, better than Billy fucking Collins, that’s for sure. She started to nod off—an amazing thing, that we can sleep in this noise, with this movement, with so many strangers around.

A few stops in, the doors opened and in walked Con. Again. Emer felt a wave of good feeling break over her body. He himself was so stunned to see Emer that the doors closed on his shoulders and he had to hustle inside to avoid being left behind or crushed. He sat down next to her.

“Emu,” he said, “I’m not stalking you.”

“I’m not complaining.”

“You’re out late.”

“Is that a problem for you?’

“Our first argument.”

They laughed.

“You didn’t call me,” he said.

“Our second argument. This just isn’t working.”

“Why didn’t you call?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“No, I honestly don’t know. I wanted to.”

“Okay. Okay. You wanted to is good enough for me.”

“But something stopped me.”

Con nodded. He seemed to understand what she was saying, even though she really didn’t understand what she was saying. That was a neat trick.

“The last few weeks,” he said, “I’ve found myself thinking about you. And I don’t know why. Sitting here with you is like déjà vu. I feel like we’ve done it before. But nothing else is familiar, except you. Déjà you.”

“Cheeseball.”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

She smiled. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“You do?”

“Kinda.”

“Kinda sorta.”

“My stop is coming up.”

“Don’t go.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

He reached for her hand, pointing at the subway map across from them. “Look at that, doesn’t it look like that old teaching toy—the ‘invisible man,’ was it? Where you could see through the clear plastic to all the veins and organs?”

“Yes, we have one of those in my classroom.”

“You teach medicine?”

“First grade. Very similar, though. A lot of overlap. Especially about the colon.”

Emer wished this were a European train and a discreet professional would walk by at any moment offering cocktails. “I guess you could think,” Emer said, “of all the lines of

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