Unreal (A City Story) Part 1

She walked out into the train station slowly, letting it hit her head on. The bustle---the everything in front of her was overwhelming. And amazing, but mostly overwhelming. A woman punched tickets at one booth, a Starbucks in one corner of the space had a line twenty faces long. The ceiling was a big map. She wasn't scared at first like she should have been. Instead, gripping her fox stuffed animal, she went over to the large clock in the middle of the station and sat down against its base, next to a man in a battered Mets cap. "I'm Lost. What's your name?" 

He smiled. "Doug. Doug Walter." "Can I help you find your parents?" he said. She smiled. "I'm not actually lost. That's my name. Lost." she said. He laughed. He had a kind smile, like he had helped people his whole life. Small scars marked his brown face and white beard, and she didn't notice any hair under his cap. "Well, what are you doing here?" he asked kindly. "I'm lost."

"Okay. Well, you can go over and tell that women over there that you're lost and she'll find you're parents. Or I can help you find them." he said, glancing around. She didn't respond, just smiled. The man knew she wasn't going to go talk to the security guard. Instead, she just wanted to sit against the pillar forever, with the clock above her, the man next to her, and hundreds of people with kids, briefcases, and trains to make hurry through Grand Central Station.

"Where have you got to get to?" She asked him, eyes wide. "Nowhere. I ain't got nothin to do, nowhere to go, and no-one to go home to." he said. He looked the slightest bit sorrowful, like that hadn't been true forever. "Well, can we look for my parents?" she asked. "Yes." They got up, and she helped him to his feet. Then they walked through the hallway and out into the streets. She almost forgot the little fox, but she grabbed him too.

Lost had never had so much meaning to her. Yellow cars, taxi cabs she remembered, honked in the street, and she almost tripped a few people walking around on the sidewalk. The man fit in perfectly, but it seemed she didn't quite belong. Yet she saw so many different people, and they all fit together like a puzzle. It was the most different she had seen before--skin colors, hair colors, sounds, definitely smells, and languages, all blended together. Then she looked up: colossal buildings shot up into the sky, making her feel like a small bug, maybe an ant. 

She gripped her fox tightly, almost forgetting the man was there too. But no-one paid her any mind, though she was gawking and dawdling along. "Come along." Doug coaxed. He wasn't unkind at all. Lost picked up her pace and they walked around, weaving through blocks, seeing more people, more buildings, more, more, more. They chatted, Lost sharing about pets, her family, and her life in the country. Doug nodded, told her that he was a sanitation worker for New York City. "What's that?" she asked. "You help keep it clean. The city." he responded.

They walked on, until her legs got tired and weak. "Hungry?" he said. She was starving practically, but she said "Oh, I suppose." Doug brought her into a shop that smelled like bread and seeds. Bagels, it was. She picked a bagel, and he paid for two of them. They brought them out to a bench, and unwrapped the bagels. She smiled, it was covered in thick cream cheese, her favorite. The man was silent for a few minutes as they ate. Then he got up. "Where are your parents now?" "I'm not sure, that's why I'm lost." she said plainly. "But, I don't mind being lost." He smiled. They kept walking.

They walked past a group of grayish blue birds eating something on the sidewalk. She stopped to look. In the country, birds would fly away if she even got near it. Here, in this city, the birds didn't pay her any mind. Until she tried to pick one up that is. The pigeons flew away together, off into the streets. Soon they came to a very tall tower--she had seen a picture of it before. It was a brownish color, and she had to crane her neck to see it. The stuffed fox looked up too. It almost seemed like it was falling over on her, but it never did. 

"That's the Empire State Building." Doug said. He seemed used to countryfolk gawking at this one, and he just stood there too, with her for a few minutes. "Come on. Check this out," he said. She followed him into the building itself! He gave a woman at a desk a few dollar bills. Then up an elevator, which she found scary. Like a roller coaster almost. But once it's doors opened again, they were out in the air, looking out over the skyline of midtown Manhattan. "Not bad, aye?" Doug said, grinning. She smiled. She leaned her hands over the edge, and by accident dropped her fox.

The stuffed fox sailed to the ground, each foot of the  1250 feet of the drop a tear for Lost. Neither of them spoke until he was an invisible speck, a drop of orange in a world of concrete and blue sky. "No!" she yelped. "Lost--I'm sorry." said Doug. "Is he gonna be fine?" she asked, her eyes begging for something Doug couldn't control. "I don't know." "Well--" Doug started. But Lost knew he didn't understand, and nothing she could tell him would change that. The fox had meant so much to her.

The ride down the elevator, Lost cried quietly. Bye the time they got to the bottom she was fine, and the man patted her on the back. But it all seemed unreal--she had only met the man today. She knew the truth: she had no parents to find. That fox was all that was left of them, a gift from her father, the only thing she had from them. She had no home to go back to, but was put on that train to Grand Central with the clothes on her back and the fox in her hands. She needed to tell the man the truth. She needed the fox.

They found it. Despite all odds, there he was in a dumpster on W 34th Street. She grabbed him even though he smelled like garbage, and told Doug the truth. His face opened up into a smile. Doug brought her down in a big underground train, where a pregnant lady scooted over to make room for them. In no time they arrived at their stop, and they got off the subway. Doug led her through a few streets and up the stairs of a much smaller building with trees in the back, behind it. 

The apartment was sunny and pleasant, but worn too. Doug spread the girl a bed and washed the stuffed fox. For the first time, both of them had found a family. They had love and a small apartment. That was all they needed.

To be continued