CHAPTER 2
Patton was half asleep, listening to music and playing computer chess. The train had been moving again for an hour or so. The sun was bright and shining through his window. He heard someone talking loudly behind him and then felt someone sit next to him. He’d been enjoying the solitude and was annoyed to have an unwanted seatmate. Patton pretended not to notice the person and stared ahead, hoping he wouldn’t be dragged into a conversation.
No such luck.
His new seatmate was an attractive man, probably in his late twenties or early thirties. He had dirty blond hair that he wore over his ears and partway down his neck. He was clean shaven, with a strong jaw line. His most striking feature was his eyes. They were an opaque blue that looked silver from the right angle. Their eyes met and Patton nodded in greeting.
“How’s it going?” the young man asked, much too loudly in the confined space. “David,” he continued, offering his hand.
Patton shook it out of obligation. The young man had a strong, confident grip and Patton could tell from the man’s forearms that he was a religious weightlifter.
“Patton,” he replied with a nod a near grimace. He quickly turned his attention back to his chess game.
“Chess huh?” David asked stupidly.
Patton clenched his teeth in annoyance but the expression went unnoticed. Instead he simply replied with a terse “yep” and turned his attention back to his screen.
David activated his touch screen and began searching for the chess app. “Is there a way that we can play each other?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh, I bet there is. You’re just scared,” David said with a fake, overly-gregarious laugh.
Patton grimaced. “Actually, no. I just don’t think there’s a way to do it.”
The younger man nodded but could tell that Patton was annoyed.
“Either way,” Patton continued, “I’d rather just play by himself.”
David looked at Patton dumbly and an awkward silence began to build between them.
“What’s your problem dude? I’m just sitting here trying to be cool with you.”
Patton returned the younger man’s gaze, dumbfounded. He shook his head and looked away.
“So what, are you too good for me or something?” David continued after an awkward moment, getting more agitated. “You barely met me.”
Patton shook his head again. “Whatever, man. Look, like you say, we just met. I don’t mind being polite and all that, but I don’t like it when people force interaction down my throat. If you can’t tell when someone doesn’t want to talk, that’s your fault.”
The younger man harrumphed and tried to interrupt, but Patton continued.
“And… I was just sitting here minding my own business and you sat by me so don’t be offended if I don’t want to talk to you.”
Time passed and light whirred through Patton’s window. The painful silence continued between them but Patton ignored it.
David cleared his throat and asked “So what do you think of all this?”
Patton groaned inwardly but replied “All what?”
“This experiment,” David replied, sounding like a hairstylist trying to force conversation. “The reason we’re on this train.”
“I think it’s just great,” Patton replied sarcastically.
A curious grin painted David’s face. This particular expression made Patton want to punch him, but he resisted the impulse.
“You think you’re better than me,” David remarked. It wasn’t a question this time.
Patton’s merely shook his head. He could tell that the best way to get back at this guy was to give him no response. No satisfaction. Give him no rise at all.
David shook off the perceived insult and continued. “I think this experiment is going to fail unless some people take it in their hands to shake it up a little.”
Patton found this statement too disturbing to not respond.
“What do you mean by shake it up?”
David shifted in his seat and then struck a more confident, relaxed pose.
“I mean… people are going to want to go on and do what they want to do. This experiment is supposed to reflect American society right? If people don’t try to reproduce American society, how will they know what the effects are?”
Patton pondered this statement for a moment. Something was deeply troubling about this logic.
David continued. “I mean, in America, you have conservatives, liberals, socialists, right-wing wackos, and anarchists. How is this supposed to work if all these groups aren’t represented? What’s the point really?”
At first Patton found himself unable to respond, but then something occurred to him.
“First of all,” Patton began, “the point of the experiment isn’t to reflect American society. They’ve already done that by who they’ve chosen. What they want to see is how people will react when all of them are put on the same financial basis. Some black people—and I agree with them on this to a point—feel that since they were slaves, they were forced to start out lower than white people. They feel they have to work to just be equal. But in this experiment, they will already be on the same level. You see what I’m saying?”
David nodded but had a pensive expression. He wasn’t used to having people throw his arguments back into his face.
“With money being equal, everything will be equal. At least for a while,” Patton continued.
“So how will money equalize things? That doesn’t really make sense. People will bring their preconceived notions, their biases, their racism with them.”
“You’re assuming that everyone holds these views, but you’re wrong.”
“Am I?” David responded harshly.
“Yes. The problem with you is,” Patton said, ignoring his childish response. “You underestimate everyone you talk to. For some reason, you assume—falsely—that you are smarter than everyone you meet.”
David rolled his eyes this time but deep down he knew Patton was right. “You don’t know me.”
“You’re right and that’s my point. You assume you’re smarter than everyone you meet. I’m sure you assume that you’re smarter than me.”
David took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. Patton was right, which embarrassed David even more. Patton continued before he could be interrupted.
“And this is the most disturbing thing to me about what you’re saying. Events are going to play out and that’s what this experiment is all about. However, if you manipulate events you’re going to skew the results. Your thinking is wrong.”
David was about to retort when a blond woman arrived and stood above them.
“Hi Patton,” she said, harried and out of breath. Then she noticed David. “Who are you?”
Patton sat up in his seat and gestured to him. “This is David.”
“Hi,” David said, beaming his most flirtatious smile and offering his hand. She shook it and brushed her hair back from her face with her other hand. She was obviously attracted to him.
The handshake lingered for a moment too long and Patton felt himself blush.
“You ready?” she asked Patton.
“Yeah,” he said excitedly, looking at Dave as if to say ‘take that!’ He stood and they walked towards the back of the entertainment car. As they reached the door, Patton looked back and smiled at David’s enraged face.
Frank looked at his wife affectionately. He loved looking at her without her noticing. This was a relatively recent phenomenon for him, this secret admiration, this fondness he felt for her. Their marriage had been a rocky one, but now that they were starting over, in a sense, he appreciated her all the more.