There is no lie when I say that I'm slightly frightened to ride the CTA, especially the "L". It's been a boundless fear ever since I started taking the train back in the inception of my former high school days. For years I've been asked for help when a man couldn't stand on both legs properly, insisted on signing up for some unknown basketball program with possibly forged signatures and rehearsed speeches, offered marijuana through an apple (which isn't all that bad), been a pillar for a couple of bloodied-up and loose-minded fools from Wicker Park, and have sat close to a number of colorful and unusual characters - mine still being a bloke disguised as a holy man replicating Jesus. No doubt I've succumbed to their worthless requests and obvious false tales, but it's something every commuter is faced with when uncharted encounters occur.
The story of Jessica Hughes was the one that topped it, albeit behind a machete-wielding incident on the Brown not that long ago that shocked Chicago for a day when everyone seemed to forget, comes as a close second. 19-year-old Jessica Hughes, a student from DePaul, was attacked by a black couple who initially fronted up a damning request for her iPhone. They then proceeded to manhandling her by busting up her nose and leaving the victim bruised and traumatized on the train, until the train conductor found her later on. What hurts the most was the lack of assistance from the other riders. No one helped. No one did anything. They probably just watched it unfold like a grade-A dramatic scene where the hero gets his ass handed to him by two unexplored and shady motherfuckers with the intention on leaving the car with one of two things: Jessica's iPhone or her life.
It's instances such as these that make the cheapest mode of transport in Chicago ever more baleful. How come no one jumped in to help her? Two walking mistakes [the suspects] would have no match against a horde of Chicago-ready warriors, extempore justice seekers at the playground of society's sinister sorority of cheap film knockoffs and neglected individuals who believe that the world isn't fair to them. The world isn't fair in general, yet their conclusion begins with a taste for vengeance but the end is always the same: six feet under, ashes to ashes, gone without a trace, or at the hands of other humans who use a Book to justify their actions.
But just imagine that, a group of helpful passengers up against two - ONLY TWO - pea-brained assholes on top of a shocked 19-year-old future nurse.
The news would go crazy! Chicago would blow up the video all over the area on all media platforms, but the helpful band of riders would never meet such attention, such fame. Their futile efforts and pussy-filled inclination to Stand Down and Do Nothing proved once again that humans will never see the light of life, for the continuous waves of dark magic prevail the spark of humbleness. Jessica didn't deserve to be attacked. What was meant to be another simple ride on the Blue Line turned out to be another chapter in the CTA archives of nasty snippets featuring humans at their lowest points, minus the heroin freaks and tatted greaseballs, who show up like a family member you haven't seen in "How long has it fucking been?!"
No doubt will people resume to ride the CTA, but will they stand up the next time someone is being kicked in, or will they retreat back to their safety bubbles while someone's life is on the line, less than a few seats away?
May 1st, 2016.
