The other day I boarded the Blue Line on my way home. Not too odd, I do that many days unless I decide to take the Pink into downtown and transfer there. The day was ordinary, classes and labwork and not much else.
The platform had the normal amount of people on it. As the train pulled up I saw it had the normal number of people in the cars. The nice thing about working and living towards the edges of the Blue Line is that it's never full when it gets to me and I only have to stand when I transfer downtown in the afternoon.
I entered my car. I have the spacing worked out so I know which car will be close to the stairs when I get off. As I stepped in I saw all empty seats towards the front of this car so that's where I turned. I then caught nothing out of the corner of my eye.
Exactly that. Nothing. Rather nobody. The car was empty. Save for me and the feeling of unease this brought with it.
I've been on cars alone before, but that had always been really late/early after long nights or occasionally a strange time on a Sunday. This was a Tuesday afternoon at 4:15. I said cars are never full when they get to me but empty cars happen less than never. They are a myth.
My first instinct is something was wrong. There must be an offending odor or something disgusting somewhere on this car. I cautiously walked up and down looking for some explanation, my nose being notoriously desensitized. There was none to be found.
It lasted only a short while, although longer than a single stop. We passed Racine and got to UIC before other passengers boarded. The whole time I tried to figure out what it meant and why it was happening.
But it was just an empty car. An oddity, but nothing more.
