The All-Seeing Eye

Oct. 20, ,2009

7:40 PM

Beijing Wangfujing Subway Exit

Hands stuffed into pockets, I waited impatiently for the others to arrive. On the stone steps of the subway stop we stood, watching the rain splosh around on the street, forming brown puddles of muck and slicking the stone under our feet.

People came and went, mostly in groups, some munching away open mouthed, spittle flying, chomping and grinding sausages on sticks, candied fruit on sticks, stinky tofu on sticks.

I moved into the rain to peer into the wave of people ascending with the escalator and flowing out on to the street to try to spot my friends. The speed of time distorted as I lost myself in the nauseating flow of bodies.

The feeling became intolerable and I was just about to turn away when I made eye contact with two eyes, one very special eye, the All-Seeing Eye.

With the calm intent of gunslingers, we sized each other up from distance. Predator and Predator. I sought to break eye contact but felt my vision, already melted into sugary purple syrup from the flow of hot human forms with waving locomotive limbs, unable to disengage.

His face turned and I realized why I found him. His second eye was frozen in still panic, a sort of violent frustration he struggled to mask in public. He inhaled and exhaled and I felt my throat constrict. Me-Mania.