The uptown subway came to an ungraceful halt jolting its crowded passengers. David Long was knocked a few inches to the left accidentally hitting the woman next to him with his briefcase.
"I'm sorry," he quickly apologized. The woman smiled at him and nodded. It was rush hour and, like so many others used to the daily commute, she understood.
As the subway lurched out of the station, David held onto the horizontal bar and stared out the window at the dark subway walls flying past. He hated to admit it, but there was a small part of him that didn't want to get off at his stop and gohome where his family was waiting for him, including, undoubtably, his father-in-law, Lao Shi. It wasn't that David minded that Lao Shi had moved to New York. As things stood, he rather liked the eccentric old man with his old clothes, his fu man chu and his superstitions.
The train came to yet another embarrasing halt as it pulled into the station. This time David managed not to smack anyone with his briefcase, but he was pressed unpleasantly further back into the crowded car, his left shoulder smashed against the woman next to him, his right pressed against a tall man who was talking loudly toa friend. David gave the woman next to him a "what can you do smile" and raised his eyebrows. She smiled back and rolled her eyes, laughing a little. David turned his head again and stared out the window watching the still full platform rush by and then disappear again into the the darkness of the tunnel.
The problem was that ever sinse Lao Shi had arrived David had somehow felt out of place in his own family. As if there were some secret that his wife and her father shared. Even his ten year old son and his seven year old daughter seemed to be in on it. David had tried to pin down what made him feel that way. It wasn't his awful Chinese. Although his wife and her father spoke Chinese as their first language, it had rarely been spoken before Lao Shi arrived, so Jake and Haley understood little of it. There was just something, something indescribable in thier eyes that he knew was missing in his own.
The train stopped, managing this time not throw any passangers across the train. It was a major transfer point and the majority of the passangers in the car got off, including the woman who had been standing next to him and the loud man on his other side. There was room in front of David to sit down. He did so, placing the briefcase across his lap. The car felt empty and oddly private now, dispite the other passangers filling up the seats. David suddenly felt tired, the work of the day finally settling in on his shoulders. The next stop on the train would be his. He would get out, walk the few blocks home, kiss his wife and hug his children.
Yes, that would be what he would do. He was looking forward to it.