Inspired by : OLWG#421 Prompt- Pacing my cage

My name is  Martie Widing and I ride the same train to work every single day.

I sit near the door and I have read the emergency exit  instructions over and over again – if you measured the time I have spent  reading the emergency exit poster by  miles instead of time it would probably add up to about  a thousand miles.

Sometimes at night, just before I fall asleep I see  the Emergency Exit Poster etched inside of my eyelids and for some reason it brings me a little comfort in the same way turning  my  pillow over to the ‘cool side’  does when the day was hot, or maybe a little too long.

Besides learning that reading the same sign over and over again has a benefit of sorts, I have also discovered that  by sitting in the same spot I  am being  treated to the sight  of  the backs of countless necks- all of them bowed over their phones and if nothing is in the way of that exposed flesh, I can see little goosebumps pop up on those necks just after the doors slide open and cool, sometimes cold air rushes in and passes through the car. I don’t know why I am so fascinated by this small thing but I am.

I have come to the point where I now have to resist the urge  to reach out and smooth the bumps down on my fellow commuter’s necks by chewing on the nail on my pinky finger, it hurts when I do that because of the hangnails that have bloomed around my nail like weeds- a few of them are infected I’m sorry to say.

I want to be honest with you, I don’t want to be a creep- I don’t want to reach out and touch some stranger’s neck just because I feel like it.

The thing is,  I ride the train a lot and I am thinking that one of these days I’ll forget myself and  my curiosity will get the better of me.

Just in case it does, I have purchased a boning knife with a blue handle and I will keep it in my backpack for that moment when chewing on my pinky finger nail can’t stop me from reaching out and smoothing those fleshy bumps down.