Brendan felt gravity pull at his mind and body as he descended with the escalator, down into the dome between the subway platforms, staring into the void between scarcely lit concrete walls and feeling as if he were looking into a mirror of his own soul. His head was blank and nearly all physical energy had been drained from his body.
At the bottom of the stairs, he dragged his feet along the largely deserted platform, toward the opposite end where he sat down on a vacant bench. He wanted to keep as large a distance as possible between himself and the few passengers who were still about at this late hour.
Brendan wanted to be all alone. Alone with his thoughts. The stray images that kept jumping in and out of the black canvas that covered the back of his head. He tried, in vain, to pin the images down, arrange them into a complete picture—a collage of his hopeless situation.
It wasn’t as if Brendan hadn’t tried all he could. He had definitely tried. He had pitched. He had argued. He had pleaded. He had begged. Yet, all his efforts had been futile. The answers had been no, no and no. There was no more money to be had. No more patience. No more line of credit. He had lost all hope of being able to free himself from the knot he found himself tied in.
Brendan heard the train approaching. A faint glow lit up the dark opening of the tunnel. He stood up and walked over to the edge of the platform, so close that his weary body struggled to keep balance. The light at the tunnel mouth grew brighter. The noise became louder. A gentle breeze played with the locks of his hair as the headlights rushed toward him. He felt the pressure. He closed his eyes.
When Brendan opened his eyes again, the train had stopped and was standing by the platform with its doors ajar. He stepped in and let his body collapse into an empty seat. As things were standing, there wasn’t much he could do. Nothing besides heading home and try to get a few hours of sleep before he had to go to the office in the morning, face his employees and tell them the hard truth—deliver them the bad news. Tell them that the company was bankrupt.
