I came up with the idea for the Long Ride a few days ago. My friends and I got together on Friday evening to share stories and have a few beers.
Before long, I ended up completely plastered. As I sat there, trying my best not to fall off my chair, my friend said something that got the gears in my brain turning, albeit slowly.
“I’m sure I can do it,” I slurred.
“Do what?” one of my friend, James, asked, turning to me.
“What that Punchy guy did, the thing Derek just mentioned, about riding the subway back and forth.”
“It’s Pynchon, dude,” Derek corrected me with a sigh. “He didn’t even do it; he just wrote about it in one of his books.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, I’m sure I can do it, too! And I can do it for an entire week.”
“The hell are you even talking about?”
“Riding the tram back and forth without getting off,” I answered.
“Why’d you even do that?”
“Because I fucking can!”
“This has got to be the dumbest thing you ever came up with…” Derek mumbled, shaking his head.
That’s how it started. The next day, I awoke to a splitting headache and a terrible hangover. While I lay in bed, my head spinning, I remembered what I’d said. I was instantly fired up again, and still set on doing it.
When I hit up my friends via WhatsApp and told them, they were less than enthusiastic, and didn’t seem to care. Yet I was more than ready to spend the rest of the weekend preparing for the Long Ride. I’d spend the entire week riding the tram without ever getting off!
Well, almost, I thought, and came up with a simple set of rules, which I promptly shared with my friends in a newly created WhatsApp group. First, no getting off the tram, not to sleep, and not to get supplies. The only exception was going to the toilet, which I only allowed myself at one specific station. I also told my friends I’d update them with a short video every other hour, so they’d know I was still on the tram.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized how right they’d been. This really was the dumbest thing I’d ever come up with. Yet, I couldn’t help but be very excited about it. To be honest, my life was boring, and the same every-day mundanity had gnawed at my sanity for way too long. No, I wanted to do something, something weird that no one had done before, an adventure. I also hoped that I’d at least witness a few interesting or strange things along the way.
At 8AM the next morning, I entered my tram line of choice, Line 4. It was by far the single longest line, going from one end of my city all the way to the other. A single one-way trip lasted roughly an hour and a half.
I also made sure I was prepared, and had stocked up on pretty much anything I’d need. I got my Kindle, a couple of other books, three fully charged power banks, and enough food and water to last me the week. The last thing I’d gotten was a change of clothes, just in case. All of this I put away in a gigantic camping backpack half the size of a person.
In the early morning, the city’s trams were an over-crowded hell, filled to the brim with people going to work and students on their way to school or university. Thankfully, I found a seat and settled down with my giant backpack. Then I put in my headphones and blasted loud music into my ears to drown out the general bustle.
Morning slowly bled into noon, and soon only a dozen other passengers remained. For the first time in a while, I actually looked at my surroundings, the city, and the other people on the tram. Usually, I was occupied with either my phone or my Kindle.
Yet the first hours of the long Ride were relatively uneventful. The only thing of note was an older lady, who sat near me, and took offense when I began eating one of the many sandwiches I’d prepared for myself. She ranted on about how I wasn’t allowed to eat on the tram and pointed at a row of prohibition signs above us. I simply ignored her and continued eating with a slight grin on my face. Eventually, she left me alone, shaking her head, and muttering about how us ‘young people don’t know any manners anymore.’ Yeah, fuck you too, lady. She was on the tram for another half hour, and for the entire duration, she stared daggers at me. At least, she didn’t go through on her promise to inform the driver and have me kicked off. That would’ve been a rather anticlimactic ending to the Long Ride, I thought, laughing to myself.
The first strange thing I noticed happened in the afternoon, but I’m still unsure what to make of it. Around that time, the tram fills up with people again. Some were students from the nearby university, others people getting off work, and, of course, children on their way home after a long day at school.
It wasn’t long before my eyes wandered to a group of seven kids. They were loud, yelling at each other, laughing and blasting their music for everyone to hear. God, how I hated them. As I watched them with growing disdain, about to tell them to knock it off, I noticed something. Two of the kids looked exactly the same. Brothers, I reasoned, or maybe twins. Yet they couldn’t have been more different. One of them was as energetic as the rest, while the other just stood there, unmoving, merely watching the rest, who seemed to ignore him.
At first, I thought nothing of it, but the longer I watched the stranger the situation appeared. The kid never moved, but after a while, his dejected, uninterested look slowly changed to a grin, an almost hungry grin, directed solely at his brother. This went on for almost fifteen minutes. His friends never noticed his weird behavior, and the kid never noticed me staring at him. I told myself he was just a child, being a child, but… That face-splitting grin. It wasn’t normal. That’s not what a child should look like. Hell, could look like!
I leaned forward, phone in hand, ready to snap a picture when the tram came to a halt. Amongst the general bustle of exciting passengers, I lost track of the kids.
After a few moments, I saw them again, now outside, at the station. Now, however, there were only six of them. One of the brothers was gone, and only the strange one, the one with that ghastly grin, was left. Once again, he just stood there, next to his group of friends, doing nothing. As I stared at him, I couldn’t help how he carried his body. He seemed tense, ready to do… something.
While I still stared at him, the tram doors closed. In that instant, the kid’s head jerked in my direction. His face was still distorted by the same grin, but his wide eyes focused on me alone. He opened his mouth wider than should be possible. And then, he jumped forward, as if to throw himself through the glass and right at me. My heart skipped a beat, and I cringed back from the window, almost toppling over my backpack, sending a few of my supplies onto the tram’s floor. Within moments, and thanks to a few helpful passengers, I was quick to pick everything up. When I stared back outside, the kid was gone, and now hurried after his group of friends, seemingly without a care in the world. I told myself he was just a kid, being a kid, and had acted stupid when he noticed me staring at him. That face, however, that mouth…
Yet there’s one other thing that puzzled me: the number of kids. There had been seven before, but only six had gotten off. I scanned the interior of the tram, trying to find the missing kid to see if he’d stayed behind, but there was no hint of him. He’d simply vanished. Then I shook my head and told myself I was being stupid. He probably got off with the rest, and rushed off on his own, leaving the rest behind. That’s all there was to it, and with that, the matter was settled.
The general bustle of the day soon evened out, only to pick up once again in the evening, when people set out to hit the bars, or meet up with friends. I nodded off at about eleven in the evening.
At two in the morning, I was jerked awake and almost pulled off my seat. When I opened my eyes, I found myself face to face with some asshole who’d tried to get a hold of my backpack. Yet I was no idiot. Before I’d gone to sleep, I’d made sure to carefully wrap the backpack’s strap around my arm. For a few seconds, the guy stared at me, a dumbfounded look on his face before he realized what was going on. A moment later, the tram came to a halt, and he rushed outside.
I could only stare at him. That asshole had just tried to steal my stuff! After he was gone, and I’d made sure nothing was missing, I settled back down, trying to get some more sleep.
