RDP Tuesday : FEAR

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Let’s play a writer’s game- it is called what if.
What IF
you have lost all sense of reason because in your world there is no one left to reason
with
Or
there are a few people to reason with but oh my God the ones who can’t see reason
have driven you absolutely mad
and your behavior recently has become, in a word monstrous.
It’s not your fault, you tell yourself, it’s those fools, those idiots those libtards.
So today
you got on one train after another
and sat in the middle of the car.
You put your leg up on the seat across from you
at an angle
then you leaned backed
and you forced yourself to cough and sneeze and then you spit on the empty seat in
front of you.
You called anyone who got up to move out of the car and get away from you a
Mother Fucker, a Libtard, you dared for someone- anyone- to call security
and on the first two trains people did call on you and security threw you off.
Then you got on my train.
You sat against the window in the row across from me.
You coughed, you sneezed, you spit on the floor and when the train got to the next
stop a lot of people got off- because that’s what happens at this stop
and you screamed at them, you said you could hear them mumbling about him.
Then of course came your somewhat hysterical sounding shouts- ‘ call security Mother
Fuckers! Go on Call them!”
Now here comes the game of what if in all of it’s glory.
What if the woman who was sitting across from you in the next aisle got up and had
moved
to the seat behind you when you were busy yelling at the girl with the electric scooter.
What if the woman had taken off her backpack off and her jacket and put her keys
between her
fingers
with the business ends pointing out, the way she learned in self defense class.
What if she had already figured out you were taller then her and she knew the best
place to jam those keys was up under your chin because there’s no resistance and with
about 10 pounds of pressure behind her she could really, really hurt you.
What if the man sitting in front of you, pretending to be book moved closer to
you too, while you were screaming and yelling.
What if you didn’t move a muscle, what if you suddenly realized the space around you
hadn’t expanded but had shrunk what if you knew that the last two people in the car
took their time gathering up their belongings and after they got off of the train you sat
there and didn’t move because you couldn’t.
What if you had looked into her face- her eyes- because of course she was wearing a
mask and you did the same to the man and
when
you saw them, really saw them you didn’t call them Motherfuckers or Libtards. You said
somewhat meekly
” Is this Seattle? ”
What if the Man said, ” yes it is ” and as the woman swung her backpack over her
shoulder with one hand and you saw those keys in the other and what if in your bones
you knew they were daring you to stand up, to make one little move- to cough or
sneeze or spit at them, what if.
What if there were really was a monster in Car 407 and you realized that the Scary
Monster who was angry and fed up and ready to rock and roll because it’s world was
gone and probably was never going to come back
wasn’t you.
What if.