I have no book, iPod, or newspaper, and none of the passengers on the subway inspire daydreams, so I focus on the empty seat to my left, on which is embedded an asterisk-shaped mark a few shades deeper than the orange of the seat itself.
The first thing I think is, “What, was Kurt Vonnegut here?” recalling his signature “asshole” drawing.
The second is, “Oh, look, someone was such a colossal asshole that he couldn’t help but leave his imprint behind. What a treat for a future ‘urban archaeologist’ to find this perfectly preserved asshole fossil.”
The third is, “Fosshole?”
If only he knew – drawing feet isn’t that hard at all. It’s just a case of a curve for the heel, one for the instep, one big toe and four increasingly smaller ones beside it, some lines for the creases in the skin around the knuckles, then a bit of shading to demonstrate the desired roughness of the skin surface, some smoother shading for the areas of the skin that are in shadow, some toenails and stray hairs and that’s it. Quite straightforward, really.
And yeah, that was intended as a kind of “I’m still watching you” message. Freaks you out, doesn’t it?