Subway Stories

by Jayashree Sitaraman v Em sat in the crowded subway car. It was unusually crowded today. All the stations were teeming with people. Since hers was the last stop on the line and she had only a few more stops to go, she decided to people watch rather than scroll stories on her phone.

Em was deeply interested in the stories of her fellow travelers. There were a group of lovely, twenty-something women of all ethnicities chatting cheerfully. Near the door sat an Asian mother and her little boy. He was sitting on her lap, and they were both fast asleep. She was worried that they might miss their stop.

A few stops later, she saw a mother and a little girl boarding their car. The little girl had a stuffed toy, maybe a penguin, and she sat in a vacant seat. Her mother was standing. She had a pink backpack and as soon as the girl sat down, the mother handed her an electronic device and a pair of headphones. The inner critic in Em came alive. She wondered why the mom would give the girl the electronic device when she didn’t even ask for one. They might have hardly 10 or 15 minutes to get to the destination. She wondered if the child could not be left even a tiny amount of time without any electronic gadgets. Well, it was none of her business though she was mentally rolling her eyes about parents today.

Suddenly, the train stopped for a few seconds and the screen on the little girl’s device paused. The girl looked around her, and Em saw the girl go into panic mode and sit there like she was frozen. The mother bent over her and tapped on the screen and the girl started watching it again. As if reading Em’s mind, the mother looked at her smiling and said, "She is claustrophobic and gets scared in a crowded subway car and the only thing that calms her is the music with calming video. I make sure to hand her the electronic device and the headphones as soon as we board the train".

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Jayashree Sitaraman is a scientist and a passionate writer. She enjoys writing about nature, travel and life in general. Her work has appeared in the anthology Poet In Verse, Bright Flash Literary Review, LOL comedy, The Leafline magazine, The Journal Of Expressive Writing, The Beacon newspaper (print and online) and her poem has won second prize in the DearReader contest 2025.

Photo by Alex Eckermann on Unsplash