Scene :: C Train, Monday Morning

Reading on the C from Fulton to West 4th,

[The Spanish conquest of the Americas] was, in other words, a process by which people and things were arranged into new classes, people were addressed as new subjects, and old subjects ceased to be addressed as people. It was a process where people were deafly butchered and impassively observed in death, with no recognition of shared humanity.

Suddenly, from one end of the train, a voice,

Good morning folks, happy holidays. I'm sorry to bother you, but I just need a little help.

I keep my eyes trained on the page. Everyone within my narrow field of vision sits still. The voice (because we learn not to acknowledge these voices as vulnerable bodies, to do so might make us responsible) again, after a pause, but slowly and carefully:

Anybody? If you can spare, I know you can, thank you very much.

He moves through the car slowly, shaking a few coins in the bottom of his styrofoam cup. He is wearing a hooded sweatshirt. On the back there is an image of Obama picked out in metal fragments. On the bottom, "Victorious."

(One in a series of scenes.)