Transported To

Seuss Fu-Rubin, known as Doc to his friends and family, was a ten year old fifth grade student at the Brooklyn New School, PS146. He was, and is, quite a character. His traits, short, smart, and quirky. He can be loud at times, though is usually quiet due to shyness. He was going through the process of seeking out a middle school. At all the long and mostly monotonous open houses he attended in this search, the bigger badder cooler middle schoolers, who he admired, looked up to, and so badly wanted to be like, constantly explained how they got to school, alone, on the subway! He couldn't believe it, he was about to get the chance to be an older and more independent and responsible pre-teen. Seuss was extremely excited, yet apprehensive, he didn't know what could or would happen. Would he be mugged or murdered? Would he make friends on the MTA lines or get lost alone? These thoughts made him shiver with both excitement and dread.

Doc slowly walks down the steps to the train platform. Criminals run all over, quietly pick pocketing people deathly sleeping on the splintered and cracked wood benches. Cops sitting around sloppily eating sticky jelly donuts, one by one until their uniforms, popping buttons, go from a deep blue to blood red. A happy couple in the far corner, pressed into one of the pillars, blissfully pleasuring each other, mouth to mouth, hand to body. Smelly hobos wander around aimlessly, nothing to do other than stink up the platforms and scavenge through the trash cans like hyenas. Gangs, loaded with pistols, daggers, nunchucks, pepper spray, bloody clubs and baseball bats, freely roam the MTA stations threatening innocent people with children. Every day business workers just trying to go to work in one whole piece. The train finally roles by late to take the next set of passengers to their destinations. These imagined images leave Seuss brain like train disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel.

The reality of Doc Seuss' fantasized idea of a depressing and creepy underground subway world was nowhere near what actually happened on his first solo journey a few days after he became one of those bigger, badder, and cooler middle schoolers. He soon learned that nothing eventful goes down in the underground life of the trains. It may be a bit gloomy, however, no real crimes are committed, rarely did he see kids sucking face.  Dim lighting and foul smells are evident, but perfume and cologne mask it. The people are diverse, reading books with ear buds implanted, police are in abundance, drinking kale smoothies and bored with no criminals lurking in any corner. Fortunately nice people roam the platforms.

Seuss, once a shy and timid elementary student, has learned some valuable lessons that can help him go far in life. He learned independence upon the rails leading to school. He learned responsibility when doing things on his own on the platform. He became one of those so called mature middle schoolers. Now, as he once searched for middle school, the adventure for finding a high school shall commence, and with it, a new train ride.