Another life to live

Chapter 8 ~ Making our way downtown

You'd think that going downtown and shopping would be easy right? If you answered yes then you haven't done so with twelve people from a different time than you and have no idea what the hell anything is, then you'd be wrong. The first step outside and all the colonials immediately ducked as they heard a plane pass by overhead. "What the hell?! What is that.... metal bird?!" Madison made his own shock crystal clear as well as the others. Philip was just star struck at the flying machine, how could something that looked so heavy fly? Evelyn calmed them down and just summed up history by saying "We learned how to fly, can we keep moving please?" And keep moving they did, only to stop every five steps and marvel at another thing. It was tedious and long but they made their way to a subway entrance.

 "Why is there a hole in the ground?" "That, my dear Peggy, is a subway, a means of traveling around faster than a carriage." Everyone was stunned. A way faster than horses?! Where the hell  was this during the war?! They went down the stairs to see a sleek tunnel leading to more stairs behind some three-pronged contraption. Evelyn walked up to the prongs and put in some kind of yellow rectangular disk in a small slot, a beep was heard and the prongs moved, she moved with it and came out the other side. She passed the card to Jefferson, who was behind her at the time "Here, do what I did. I'll get you guys passes later."

 After everyone got through (Alex just stood there looking at the card for a good minute studying it until Herc got impatient and pushed him into the prongs.) they made their way to a large map that had many different coloured lines on it. The top of the map read "Metro, New York" The lines seemed to be numbered. "Okay, if we take number four (she points to a green line) we can get down to Grand Central then take seven (a purple line) to Times Square and do our shopping there." The group was still getting over the map when she pulled them to another tunnel at the bottom of two sets of moving stairs that she called 'escalators' and stood. Aaron looked down the dark tunnel "Now what?" He fixed his collar. "Now, we wait." She responded. The station was dead quiet, not another soul was there which was uncommon for a NYC subway. 

"Isn't this incredible Laurens? They built a transit system underneath New York! And they made travel much faster! Can you believe this?!" Alexander was hysterical, he was just bursting with questions and observations that he just had to write it all down lest he burst into flames from the sheer amount of excitement. "Honestly Alex, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this. It's been so long that they created all this? Doesn't that unsettle you a tiny bit?" John was shifting on the spot. "How so?" "Well, just think. Our old bodies have long since been buried, we as in our bones should be under the ground as we speak. We died, yet the world moved on. Isn't it a little strange? Don't you feel uneasy knowing we can go and see your grave?" Hamilton had to slow down and think. "Now that you mention it, yes, it is strange.... But look around! Are we dead?" John looked "No." "Are we far from New York?" "No, we're in it." "Are we in the middle of a war?" John had to shudder "No, not that I hear or see any." Alex grabbed his hands "Then what should frighten you Laurens? We are safe, free even! Isn't it wonderful? All our work lead to this, be happy. Let's live while the days are young." He hugged him, bringing the dark-redhead close. They had never been this close in years. The moment was one that felt like forever.....

Until the subway came and halted with a screech. They jumped and held their ears, it was deafening to new people but to Eve she just stood there waiting for the stop. "Come on, this is our car." She hustled the twelve people onto an empty car and sat in one of the seats. The girls sat with her but most of the boys stood except for Gwash, Burr, and they gay coup- I mean, Thomas and Madison. Philip grabbed a pole "What happens now? This is supposed to move ri-" and just like that, the subway sprang to life. The men were thrown back except the people in the seats and Philip who, was still clinging for dear life. Lafayette grabbed a pole as well and proceeded to nearly pole dance on it. Alex, Herc, and John were thrown to the back of the car and tried to get back up, Hamilton was laughing and smiling uncontrollably either due to fear or actual entertainment. John quickly got himself in one of the seats before another lurch sent Alex toppling to the floor again. Hercules clung to the seats and managed to get up on one. Halfway through, Alexander finally grabbed onto a pole and regained a standing position. His hair was a mess and his ponytail had slid down his head but he didn't care. Burr was gripping the sides of the seats with pure panic for the first five minutes until he felt a little bit more safe. The girls were laughing at the boys as they flew about. George was snickering to himself but remained composed. Madison had gripped Jefferson who returned the action as the car was moving forward.

"Wh-when you said f-fast (wheeze) you-you really ment hella fast. Haaa.." Alex had relaxed but was still giggling. "Alexander, how you are laughing at this amazes me." Burr was still somewhat panicky. "Oh c'mon Burr! You can't lie, it was kinda fun at first!" "If fun to you is being thrown about and having a heart attack then you must be mad." "Burr..." This conversation went back and forth until they reached the station. "Okay, now listen, we're going to be in a very busy place so stay close to me. I don't want to lose anyone in Grand Central." When the subway car stopped they exited, some a little more shaky than others. They walked to another platform and waited there. 

Many more people were at Grand Central, the group marvelled silently at the diversity of the people. Blacks, Whites, Asians, everything inbetween, short people, tall people, people with kids, some with bags, men, women, a man kissing a woman on the very end of the platform, a man kissing another man on the other side, a.... wait what? "Thomas, are they... kissing?" Madison whispered "They're doing it publicly, they'll get hanged if they're reported." "Then why does nobody seem disgusted?" They looked around, nobody seemed to care. Hell, one person came up to them and gave one of them a high five "Nice going Quinn!" The men gave him a smirk and went right back at it. They were... okay seeing two men have a homosexual relationship? What?! "Um, Evelyn, I hate to say it but... there appears to be a homosexual couple here." Eve looked at the two men. "Oh yeah! Um... it's okay to be gay nowadays, in fact, gay marriage is legal now." Well their heads almost exploded. Both men blushed, it was legal to love who you wanted now? No punishment? Wow, what had the world come to? Neither would admit it but they were happy.

The next car pulled in and everyone got on. They weren't alone in the car this time, there were others with them. They all knew better than to stand so they either immediately grabbed a pole or snagged a seat. The two gay men sat next to Tjeff and Jmads. Madison, wanting to try and accept the lovers, struck up a conversation. "So.... you two been together long?" The men turned to him and Jefferson. "Oh us? Well, it's been two years since we started dating but we've known each other since high school." The man referred to as Quinn talked. Thomas jumped into the conversation "Uh-huh. Well that's nice." They smiled "It is! We just moved in together, oh! My names Quinn, this is my man Dennis, and you two?" "Thomas and this is James, pleased to meet you." He reached out and shook Quinn's hand. "Nice to meet you too! So Thomas, how long have you two been together?" 

Both men flushed "We aren't- We never-I- We-" Tjeff was panicking "Oh, are you not dating? Sorry, we just thought that, you look like a great couple." Jefferson was nearly having a seizure and Madison coughed uncomfortably "Well, we've known each other since we were young but we never thought about... we never thought about that because of.... it was... different times back then and we..." "Hey, no, no, it's okay. Times were different a while back, families had certain ideas and beliefs that were put before the emotional wellbeing of others. It's fine. Sorry we made you feel uncomfortable." Dennis was leaning over Quinn. "Well, we were the ones who asked you first. There's no need to apologize." Jefferson was back to sanity. "Oh! Here's our stop. It was nice meeting you two, here;" Dennis opened up his bag, grabbed a small piece of paper and wrote something down on it. He handed it to James, the paper had two sets of numbers on it in segments of three "Call us if you ever want to meet up and do something together!" They waved as they got off the subway.

They looked at the paper then to each other, Tjeff was confused "The hell do we do with this?" He turned to Eve "What's these... codes those two men wrote down? He said to 'call them'?" He showed her the paper, she examined it carefully. "Um, I'm going to have to talk about phones later aren't I?" Both men looked at her confused. "I'll explain it later, right now our stop is coming up." She gave them back the paper and Madison stuffed it into his pocket. 

The pack exited the subway and were greeted by noise all around them. The colonials gaped at what they were seeing. Lights everywhere, extended from poles, on signs, suspended in the air, on those little rectangle boxes people were holding, everywhere. The buildings were massive and so were some signs. There were metallic boxes with wheels that were on either sides of them. People were everywhere, in shops, on the sidewalks, in the boxes, everywhere. It was overwhelming for them, Washington was in shock, the sisters were marvelling at some of he stores, John was engrossed in a video of aquatic life as a commercial for a water filtration device on one of the screens, Laf and Herc couldn't help but look at all the freakin' traffic, Jefferson and Madison were looking at the giant screens and all the adverts, Aaron and Philip didn't know what to look at (though for both extremely different reasons), and Alex was looking at... well, everything. He could barely comprehend what he was seeing, this was the New York he had helped make.... and he wanted to see all of it.

Evelyn turned to the group, a sheepish smile on her face. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: New York City 2016!"