On my morning commute, I tromped down the stairs to the Red Line and accidentally found myself face to face with some strange man. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and did not seem in a hurry to get anywhere, unlike everyone else in the subway. So, you know how sometimes you find yourself locked into eye contact with someone, and time stops and you can't figure out how to make it start again so you can look away and end the horrifying awkwardness? Yeah, that happened. It was very early, and I was still partly asleep and not sure if the things around me were real or just very dull dreams. So, there we were, spellbound in uncomfortable (for me) eye contact, neither of us moving. Then I heard the rumble of the train approaching. Very slowly, and without breaking the eye contact, the strange man raised his arm and pointed at the oncoming train. It was just like that moment in A Christmas Carol when the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come points Ebeneezer toward the mysterious tombstone that bears his own name. I finally broke out of the time bubble, turned away, and got on my train. So, yeah, I'm pretty sure that guy was Death, and I just wasn't the one he was there for.
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