Everyday Stories: On the Subway

So here’s my first post for Everyday Stories. I’ll be taking something that happened last night on my way home from work.

The Event: An old man is on the subway, where he was sitting next to a woman (she was on his left). The woman got up right before her stop and said “Excuse me” to the man since his legs were in the way. The man moved his legs a bit, thinking it was enough but the woman still couldn’t pass through. The man suddenly got quite angry and started mumbling as he further moved his legs to make room for the woman. As he mumbled angrily, he was giving this woman a killer death stare.

Okay. So when I saw this happen, I immediately thought that this old man was being a jerk. To me, the woman really didn’t have much space to move around if she needed to reach the doors. She could’ve been rude and walked through the old man’s legs, which probably would’ve pissed him off, too. I initially thought that this man was being lazy and inconsiderate, but then I started thinking: why did that woman bother him so much. And this is when I started thinking about potential plot lines….

The Story Ideas:

• Before he got on the subway, a 50-year old man got into the worst fight with his wife of 40 years. She declined treatment for her cancer and he can’t change her mind. He was taking the subway to visit his son, who had cut off ties with his mother since he was 18. This old man thinks reuniting them will change his wife’s mind and save her life.
• An old man on the subway causes a commotion when he starts yelling in rage at the woman sitting beside him. The woman tries to calm him down but he just gets worse. It turns out that he’s her father, who she’s been taking care of for the past three years. She’s very close to reaching her tipping point – her life has been falling apart since she started caring for her sick father.
• A woman finds herself running late while on the subway. Just as she was about to get off her stop, the man sitting beside her prevents her from getting out of the subway car. She is livid! Because she didn’t get off her stop, she has missed a very important meeting – one that would’ve changed her life forever. This meeting was the last task she needed to complete to get her life back.

These are basically the ideas I wrote down during last night’s commute. Like I mentioned in my last post, I didn’t want to edit myself. The point of Everyday Stories is that I just write whatever idea I can think of during the moment without judging how great or crappy it is.

So what about you? What story ideas come to your mind when you read about the old man and the woman on the subway? I’d love to read them!