He wanted to say, “I love you.” Instead he saw sadness in her eyes and watched her figure slowly fade from view. He stood still, not hearing or seeing anything.

Slowly his surroundings made their way back into his consciousness. The daily hum of traffic in the street and the loosely overheard conversations of people walking and talking on their mobile phones. Occasionally one human interacting directly with another human even occurred. He stared dumbly at it all and let his focus bounce from one subject to another.

A bird hopped into view, it's head darting around so quickly that it appeared to be a simple freeze frame movie. It approached a fallen french fry cautiously, then harpooned it and took off in frantic flight in one quick motion. Another bird swooped in from nowhere and launched after the first.

He found himself taking a step, then another. He had no direction, but soon found himself mostly alone waiting for the next subway train to somewhere. A subway is one of those places where you can be alone regardless of how many people are nearby. He sighed. The train arrived within a few minutes, as it is apt to do when you do not need to go anywhere. He stepped on and remained standing, even though there were plenty of seats. A muffled voice mentioned the direction and next stop. Even in the best of times it was mostly unintelligible, so in his state none of it registered and none of it mattered. He just wanted to go somewhere. Anywhere but here.

The train picked up speed and the people on the platform went from recognizable forms to motion blurs, followed by darkness.