Each Friday, [tweetthis]I post a photo and a bit of flash fiction. I keep the words brief because, you know, “a picture is worth a 1,000….” [/tweetthis] To find out more click here.

Last week I posted photos I took while I rode IN Chicago’s Green-Line L train.  This week the photos are what I saw FROM the same train.

Here’s my bit of flash fiction.  It may be a bit autobiographical.

Eloise felt her pupils enlarged after each "L" stop. It's as if her eyes are trying hard to let more sensation saturate her brain.

People going to work; people going to school; people going to church.  People everywhere. 

Sun reflects off of stainless steel and glass; old architecture peeks between the legs of new buildings reaching toward the sky.

"Only God can make a tree," a poem memorized in 7th grade surfaces from some neuronal connection deep in Eloise's brain. But, my-oh-my humans can sure create beauty, she thinks. She wonders if her senses will dull with time. Will I ever stop wondering about the stories behind the people; what their life with the train rattling by; whether they forget what beauty surrounds them?

Eloise exits at her stop and walks down the stairs holding the rail with her gloved hand. The stairs take exactly enough time to silently say three "Hail Marys"before she's on the street.

[tweetthis]There’s so many stories that could be woven for any one of these photos. [/tweetthis] Maybe someday one of these will inspire a novel.  I do L-O-V-E, love Chicago. (I took the photos with an iPhone 7, and did some minor editing with Snapseed.)