We are all in this together. La la la lo.

Scene: Weekday, noonish. Metro train pulls into station, stops. But ho! The main lights in the individual car in front of Subject are off, yet the doors open. The lights of the other, surrounding cars glow, as do the station lights, so it's dim, but not pitch dark. AC hum is also missing. Conclusion? Dead car. But it'll still go.

Action: Subject enters car, via center door. (Too lazy to walk down to other cars. What the heck. There are people in it already. Conclusion? Safe enough.) Sit down. Subject begins sketching. No prob! My own personal picture show.


Train lurches and lumbers and jolts along its jolly way. Stops at Tenley to gather in some more lazy folk. Two affluent AU students (as extrapolated from the ratty-tatty way they are dressed -- faux skid row) get on. Very small child in stroller in the front of our dim car begins well-modulated, quietly happy musical chant of la la la la, up and down the scale, over and over. Not annoying! Kind of cute. Pleasant background 'music'. (Conclusion? Child misses the car's AC hum and is filling the void. Apropos!)

Train comes to a halt in the tunnel between Tenley and Van Ness. No one, including Subject, pays this any mind. This is normal. We all know.

But hey, yo! End-of-car-forbidden-door springs open and MetroMan (our pilot?) shoots in, wearing enviable phosphorescent Metro vest, with walkie-talkie shrieking garbled phrases about "stuck train just outside Van Ness". Or some such. Alas. We all hear it. Oh, woe.

Fellow travelers in dim car exchange wry looks, smiles of resignation, wordless shrugs. But whoa. MetroMan races to and fro, pushing obscure buttons at each end of the car and raising seats up to lean way over to push additional very obscure buttons in exposed wheel wells. Maybe there's hope. Musical chant of la la la la continues unabated. No fear there! Go, kid, go!


MetroMan races out into the next car, trailing dire walkie-talkie snippets. Hope! But, alas, no. Very shortly a bellowing voice comes onto train speakers telling us that the train is broken and that "This train will go out of service at Van Ness station. Repeat: this train will go out of service at Van Ness" and we are all to get off. "This train will go out of service at the Van Ness station." He repeats this about four times, just in case we didn't understand. Musical chant of la la la la fills the momentary silence after these announcements. Kid not even close to being the least bit distracted from his mantra. (Conclusion? Kid is monk. Tenacious. Won't let it go.)

"This train will go out of service at the Van Ness station." Alas. We get the picture. But no! Maybe not, bro. Well dressed elegant old woman up a row. She leans over and asks the elderly gent next to her, "Did he say this train will go out of service at the Van Ness station?"  Um, hello?