If you missed your train, there was nothing you or anyone else could do. The vacuum sealed system was inaccessible except for the thirty seconds or so during boarding. So if you missed it, you simply had to wait the fifteen excruciating minutes before the next one came around.

On this particular morning, Benjamin had missed his train for one of the few times in his life. Now he was stuck at the station, alone except for the staccato strums of a guitar in the vicinity. Ben looked around and discovered a young scruffy man with a guitar and a stuffed unicorn seated against a wall of the station, humming to himself.

Ben tried not to make eye contact and instead began to pace in circles. He pulled out his phone and called his secretary to give her a list of things to do in his absence. After he hung up, he checked his email and continued to avoid the wannabe musician. The guitar was grinding his already frayed nerves and after several more terrible minutes of strumming, Ben turned towards the musician with the intention of scolding him. Instead he caught sight of the lavender-colored stuffed animal and found himself asking, “What’s with the unicorn?”

The guitarist finished his tune and responded with feeling. “To remind me that there is hope for our world and the next generation.”

Ben thought that sounded a bit vague and grandiose. “What?”

The musician set his intense eyes on Ben and said, “I’m not that good a musician, but even if I was, nobody here would notice.”

“Then why do you stay?”

“Because I’d like to think I’m making someone’s day a little bit better when I play. Can you say the same thing about your job?”

Benjamin didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure if he despised this youth more because he was a tramp, a poor guitarist, or because he had the audacity to challenge Ben’s work ethic. Then the Express arrived and Ben left the musician to his strumming, but he couldn’t shake what the younger man had said. He was certain that if he just got back to work, things would return to normal. But like many people, his mind had the inconvenient tendency to remember the things he wished he could simply forget.