var storyContent = {"inkVersion":19,"root":[["^Chapter 1: Nia ",{"#":"CLASS: big_name"},"\n","ev","str","^Start","/str","/ev",{"*":"0.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"begin"},"\n",{"->":"0.g-0"},{"#f":5}],"g-0":["done",{"#f":5}]}],"done",{"begin":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^Another hopper...","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"start"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"start":[["^My supervisor told me not to stop anyone, just record what I see. That's the seventh fare dodger in the past half hour. Three over the turnstiles, four through the emergency door propped open.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"mark_it_down"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"mark_it_down":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^I mark it down on my clipboard and click my hand-counter to record another passenger. It's gone past 999 three times already.","\n","^Click-click-click. So many people, all our passngers, getting from here to there. Click-click-click. Record what I see.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"record_see"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"record_see":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^I worked at a desk for a while, and now I'm a Station Monitor.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"report_supervisor"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"report_supervisor":[["^I write reports, send them to my supervisor, and they post me to another station. Click-click-click.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"manhattan"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"manhattan":[["^I'm mostly in Manhattan, but sometimes also in Queens. This is my third time at Fulton Street. This time I'm by the A-C-E & 4-5 exits, the other times I was over by the R.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"over_r"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"over_r":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"ev",1,"/ev",{"VAR=":"puddle","re":true},"^It's Tuesday, a low-volume day. Click-click-click.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"commuters"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"commuters":[["ev",0,"/ev",{"VAR=":"puddle","re":true},"^Lots of commuters, not many tourists. It's supposed to rain later. It might be raining now, I can't tell from where I'm posted. But I don't see anyone coming down the escalator wet, so I'm guessing it hasn't started yet.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"thinking_about"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"thinking_about":[["^That doesn't go in my reports, but it's what I'm thinking about as another person goes through the emergency doors. Click-click-click.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"through_doors"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"through_doors":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^There's a stain on the floor that wasn't here yesterday. I stand just to the left of it, on the other side of a large black plastic dump-cart, leaning against the steel sheeting frame of the video advertising sign.","\n","^It cycles through the same three commcerials all day: Dunkin Donuts, a new shampoo-conditionaer, and a sight-seeing tour around Wall Street. Click-click-click.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"bigger_brands"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"bigger_brands":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^You'd think, with all the financial woes of this city, there'd be bigger brands wanting this ad space. You'd think that the thousands of eyeballs that pass through these halls would be enough on it's own to entice Madison Avenue.","\n","^But I guess this is as good as it gets. Like all things that come down here, the ads even become muted are staid. This doesn't go into my report, but I observe it anyway.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"into_report"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"into_report":[["ev",1,"/ev",{"VAR=":"person","re":true},{"#":"CLEAR"},"^I observe a lot of things. I see the Hare Krishna singers trying to give away their books. Bobbing shaved heads, orange shawls dragging, beads rattling around their necks. Click-click-click.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"exuverance"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"exuverance":[["ev",0,"/ev",{"VAR=":"person","re":true},"^Their exuberance is overwhelming at times, some might even say manic. Always smiling, always joyful, always performing so candidly that it comes across as phony.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"turn_away"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"turn_away":[["^I see passengers turn away from them clutching their belongings closer, as if to visually show how tied they are to a world of things. Refuting them in body and mind. Labeling them, fair or not, as weirdos. Judding them on bad assumptions, or because we only encounter them here: underground, between transfers, in this non-space of the subway hub.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"person_click"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"person_click":[["^Click-click-click.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"security"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"security":[["ev",0,"/ev",{"VAR=":"person","re":true},"ev",1,"/ev",{"VAR=":"camera","re":true},{"#":"CLEAR"},"^I see the dozens of security cameras hanging above the turnstiles, their fish-eye lenses scanning faces by the thousand. They're observing too, but in a different way than I am. Click-click-click.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"looking_not_seeing"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"looking_not_seeing":[["ev",0,"/ev",{"VAR=":"camera","re":true},"^Though they're looking, they're not seeing. They don't do my work. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what they're meant to do. I think they're supposed to freighten, but I don't know how effective they are.","\n","^Maybe they're just meant to be there, a reminder to the paranoid and the anxious that somone is watching. I wonder what their reports look like.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"business"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"business":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^I notice the fancy people who grace this pit. Decending with suits-and-ties, buttoned down and polsihed shoes, classy and dapper. I see the tailored cuffs, the hemmed fit, the matching socks. They shout out their comfortable lifestyles with every stride, a magnet for admiration and jealousy.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"foot_fall"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"foot_fall":[["^They walk in a way that punctuates every foot-fall, a sharp stab in the din of this void. Click-click-click.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"stairs"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"stairs":[["ev",1,"/ev",{"VAR=":"stairs_vid","re":true},{"#":"CLEAR"},"^There are all the stairs, the many steps, three-to-five at a time, in small increments, in minor scales.  Click-click-click.","\n","^All of them obstacles, dangers, everyday nightmares. Some bound up like rabbits. Climbing effortlessly, smooth and agile. Sleek like the sheen walls, flashes of light, blurry, quick.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"climb_climb"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"climb_climb":[["ev",0,"/ev",{"VAR=":"stairs_vid","re":true},"^Other, not so. They climb, really climb. They labor, striving quietly, unnoticed by most. Without any ramps or relief in in sight. They climb because they must, because no one cares about their struggle, and certainly no one has built this hell with them in mind.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"nonspace"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"nonspace":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^I see what others see: a system dying. I see the disclored tiles and burnt out fluorescent bulbs. The blown-out speaker systems crackle with barely comprehensible announcements about broken down elevators and alternative routes.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"money_mispent"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"money_mispent":[["^I see money mispent and cruel farehikes. I see more police but less safety. I see people keeping to themselves, glued to their phones and caccooned in their headphones. I see survival.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"dont_write"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"dont_write":[["ev",1,"/ev",{"VAR=":"clipboard","re":true},{"#":"CLEAR"},"^But I don't write this on my clipboard. My supervisor won't see these thoughts.","\n","^Instead, they'll read about rider habits, number of fare evaders, congestion patterns, recommendations for service improvements, and other \"incident notes.\"","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"another_week"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"another_week":[["ev",0,"/ev",{"VAR=":"clipboard","re":true},"^Though I might be here for another week, my report will only be a couple pages. It'll be a series of tables, columns and rows of numbers, sequenced and arranged just so. Click-click-click.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"arranged"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"arranged":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^It'll tell my boss's bosses what's happening down here in so many words. It won't tell details, it won't include the smells or the sounds; the lingering piss odor, the random echoing shouts, or errant lilting voice.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"humid_air"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"humid_air":[["^My report won't include the heavy uncirculating air, it's humidity an invisible cloud of sweat that's acculumated over weeks of rider perspiration. How it chokes my lungs and fills my pores with a thick greasy feeling. A deep-fried vapor.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"not_included"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"not_included":[["ev",1,"/ev",{"VAR=":"maze","re":true},{"#":"CLEAR"},"^I won't bother writing about how down here--below the commerical facades and the gaudy shopping displays--trying to walk in a straight line from one place to another is impossible. Everyone crosses paths, always darting in directions of narrow misses and awkward pardons.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"this_place"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"this_place":[["ev",0,"/ev",{"VAR=":"maze","re":true},"^The report won't contain my thoughts on this *place*, this micro-maze where nine trains meet. It won't deliver news from these depths, this hole we've carved out from this once wonderful island.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"it_wont"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"it_wont":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^I won't detail the ins-and-outs of what I witness here in any meaningful way. It won't document how we could do better by these people, our riders, our passengers, our residents.","\n","^It's not that I don't want to, but rather I can't.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"cant"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"cant":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^There's no space for any of that in my report. No line left blank for me to fill. No tables to hold the paragraphs I'd write about my observations. No open-ended section for my wandering mind. Click-click-click.","\n","^That might happen elsewhere, during another shift, or by another station attendant, handled by another supervisor, or even an entirely different department.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"another_form"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"another_form":[["ev",1,"/ev",{"VAR=":"crowd","re":true},{"#":"CLEAR"},"^There might be another form for recording that data. For jotting down notes about the tired but hopeful faces that glide through our stantions and maneuver through these clumsy halls.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"another_document"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"another_document":[["ev",0,"/ev",{"VAR=":"crowd","re":true},"^Maybe there's another document to record the blank stares that come from facing another day on these trains. Or some procedure for documenting the gentle, but necessary, courage of the many people that have no choice but to transfer here.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"merely_watch"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"merely_watch":[[{"#":"CLEAR"},"^Or better yet, maybe there's some policy in place to let a worker merely watch, to truly record what they see, all of it, in full detail.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"a_record"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"a_record":[["^A record of the stress and chaos, the subtle dramas and everyday kindnesses, the tensions and pressures, the fog and the foam, the stains and smears, the clammor and calm, the fare skippers and card-swipers, the riders and the rest.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"living_document"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"living_document":[["^A report without sections written on as many pages as needed. A living document, pulsing and pussing just like this station. A manifesto to all the wonders and traumas of this chamber.","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"endless"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"endless":[["ev",1,"/ev",{"VAR=":"no_vid","re":true},{"#":"CLEAR"},"^An endless report...","\n","ev","str","^>>","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"doubt"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"doubt":[["ev",0,"/ev",{"VAR=":"no_vid","re":true},"^But, I doubt it. Click-click-click.","\n","^As like many things that chould be possible but aren't, such a thing would destroy what it hopes it depict. And no supervisor would ever allow that.","\n","ev","str","^END","/str","/ev",{"*":".^.c-0","flg":20},{"c-0":[{"->":"before_end"},"\n",{"#f":5}]}],{"#f":1}],"before_end":[{"#":"CLEAR"},"end",{"#f":1}],"global decl":["ev",0,{"VAR=":"puddle"},0,{"VAR=":"person"},0,{"VAR=":"camera"},0,{"VAR=":"stairs_vid"},0,{"VAR=":"clipboard"},0,{"VAR=":"maze"},0,{"VAR=":"no_vid"},0,{"VAR=":"start_vid"},0,{"VAR=":"crowd"},"/ev","end",null],"#f":1}],"listDefs":{}};