stuck in a moment

i just flipped the last page of the book when the train stopped at mc arthur park. as usual, people flooded the doors and started to populate the vacant spaces of the underground train like they used to do every rush hour. in less than a minute, the doors closed and the automated voice informing the public of the next station dominated the air.

wilshire and vermont.

hollywood and vine.

hollywood highland.

universal city.

every two to three minutes, the automated voice announced the next destination, opened and closed the doors like its routine. the catch is, the train never moved. for over 20 minutes, the train was like that- announcing the destination, closing and opening doors but never moved a single wheel forward. i wanted to believe that it was some prank and that ashton kutcher and his team would show up and scream "you all got punked! ha! ha!" but not even the shadow of mr kutcher appeared on the background. it was surreal. for 20 minutes most of the passengers doesn't seem to notice the false impression of travel and movement made by the automated voice announcer. it was as if they were all under the spell of believing that they were actually moving forward when in fact they were just stuck in one place for minutes. maybe their enthusiastic conversations with their companions or maybe their deep slumber made them oblivious to illusion of movement in the train. or maybe, i was just too self conscious and self absorbed that's why i got stucked in that moment after i closed the book that i read.