crazy train lisa

we all know there are a lot of weird people out there.

but when you ride the train in the city, you have a whole new perspective on the world. especially when your stop is at the court house. you see lots of shady chacters, but also a lot of cops (thank you jesus). you also see some crazies. but it's often hard to tell who the crazies are.

so this brings me to one special crazy i have seen over the past month or so. let's call her lisa. i don't know why, but for some reason, she looks like a lisa. and i am not talking about pauly shore "lisa, lisa." i'm talking gawky but not ugly, looks like she might have braces, definitely wears glasses. today she was wearing an electric blue headband with fuzzy ear muffs connected to it. the more i think about i think she might look like the girl who plays "ugly betty" on tv. but i have never seen that show so i am not sure.

anyway. i have seen lisa several times on the train. and every time i see her she is crying. it's so strange. she'll cry and then she'll calm down and then someone will sit down, she will stare at them intensely and then start crying again. the first time i saw her i thought, "should i ask if she's okay? why is no one staring at her?" and then she stopped and was fine. the next time the same thing happened. all tears, no smiling.

thoughts about lisa's problems run wild through my mind when i see her: she's been abused. she is scared of the train. she forgot her lunch again. she is in serious pain. she has gas. she's scared of black people (she stares at black people very intensely). but today i realized: she is flat out crazy.

she stares at people for attention and then starts crying. she contorts her face as to make tears. then she gets worked up to real tears and stares harder. is she looking for sympathy? then when the person moves, she gets herself together, smiles and looks at her reflection in the mirror and smiles. then a new person gets on the train and it all starts over again.

she is crazy. she is testing others' emotions by exploding in to tears. or is it some kind of sick social experiment? momma always told us not to talk to strangers...do we do that when we're fully grown.

either way you put it, it's totally messed up.
so with that i say happy holidays, lisa.