In the Apple

Chapter 5

As I sat musing on these sad and unloved once-beautiful buildings, the train shuddered and the light changed abruptly. I gasped again, ears popping, as we hurtled into a tunnel. The man across from me smiled at my reaction, popped his briefcase open, folded his newspaper, and placed it neatly inside. All around me, commuters were gathering their belongings and standing up. I remained in my seat, suddenly afraid. Maybe my parents were right. Maybe I was too young to be doing this alone. Perhaps I should just stay on the train and ride it back home. I'd be home before lunchtime. No one would ever know what I'd done.

Then my seat mate stood up, smiled down at me, and gestured politely for me to precede him into the flow of people moving along the aisle. I stood up obediently, merged into the human stream, and found myself carried with the fast-moving crowd along the platform towards a doorway which emerged into the startling glory of Grand Central Station.

Stunned, I gazed around me. This was the most enormous room, if room it could be called, I'd ever been in, or even imagined, and it was bustling with more people than I'd ever seen in my life. The thousands of people moving through the station actually were ant-sized in comparison to the scale of the room. The light was intense - a golden, honeyed glow that was almost shocking after the comparative darkness of the platform. Everything gleamed and glimmered. For the first time, I truly felt the meaning of the word awestruck, and I turned my head up and around, staring up at the ceilings, the balconies, the giant windows and glittering chandelier. There was so much to look at, my eyes were stunned, and I stood fascinated, heart thundering, realizing that I could easily spend the entire day simply exploring this station and probably not even cover a quarter of it. Its intricate beauty invited a detailed study. And this was just one building - a train station - within the city. It defied every impression of a train station I'd ever had. It defied every impression of a building I'd ever had! I felt dizzy with immensity, and very, very small.