The Germ Girl

Jan walked down the aisle. Her back pack bumped against some of the seats that she passed. She wondered if she was disrupting these passengers’ trips too much. She had spilled coffee into her backpack a few days ago. It smelled bad by now. The other passengers could probably smell it. They probably had a bad impression of her. The train moved like waves over bigger swells. She steadied up by grabbing the brown plastic handle on one of the seats. Thousands of germs bit on to her skin. She wanted to not use the hand any more until she washed it.

She sat down next to a boy wearing a black suit. She knew that it only looked black to her. In reality it was very dark blue. The boy probably did important business at a bank. He spoke into his little phone about another boy named Stew. Jan tried to ignore the boy’s side of the conversation because it was not her business. However, trying to ignore it only gave her super sonic hearing. Stew had screwed up the internal audit. The boy in the dark blue suit wasn’t going to take any heat for what Stew did. He would call Stew and get to the bottom of things.

The boy in the black suit calmed down and said goodbye. He hung up the phone and leaned back. He moved his arms and his head around. He folded up the little phone and set it carefully on the leather bag in his lap. He looked like he might be starting to have a heart attack. Jan knew CPR from long ago. In Girl Scouts they made her learn it on a dummy. She knew the mouth to mouth part. If the boy in the black suit needed it, she would have to go ahead and give it to him and not think about it. She should not have had to think about it. She thought about it anyway.

Heart attacks had nothing to do with obstructions in the throat. She could pound on his chest and use his little phone to call the 911 number. She would have to call information first to make sure. She would dial 411 first and speak to a computer about her city and state. Then to someone who sounded like a different computer. Then Jan’s voice would be recorded. Her recorded voice would bring a sterile ambulance. The sterile ambulance would take the boy away and make it okay again. Thinking about this made her start to calm down.

Soon the train hesitated. That meant it would stop soon. The boy collected his coat and briefcase. Jan let him get by. He left his little phone on the seat and Jan thought she had better reach it to him. She reached for it, but saw the part that had touched his face. She didn’t want to touch that. The boy headed down the aisle. When the train stopped, he stepped onto the platform. Jan saw him start to feel through his bag and his pockets. He looked at Jan through the window and she stared back at him, wondering if he could see through the glare. She did not think he could see her at all.