3

Nightfall was coming. Split between the two characters, Jacob realized that he would have to choose between the eternal student—who had separated from his wife, lost his health, and even hope, but continues to believe in God and sacred love—and the short-haired criminal from his murder novel.

This guy was a rapist and a crook. In the guise of a policeman, once he had stopped a Chevrolet, got into the car and demanded the attractive blonde driver in a provocative open blouse take him to a deserted embankment not far from Emmons Avenue. After raping her, he knocked her out with a blow from his knife handle and, leaving the car, took her wallet and withdrew money from her bank account. This crime finally helped the FBI to come upon his trace.

The people hurrying to the subway elbowed Jacob and pushed him aside.  He tried to keep in sight the longhaired, denim-clad man.

They both entered the subway and went through the shiny metal turnstiles onto the open platform.  Despite the late hour, there was a crowd on the platform.  Jacob noted that his heart was beginning to beat hard. Beats pounded in his chest and merged with the pounding of the church bell. There was a salty taste in his mouth. Blood has such a taste; one also tastes it before losing consciousness.

Several long, eternal minutes passed. Jacob kept his eyes on the fellow who stood on the platform near the phone.  In the distance the train appeared, its two bright yellow lamps cutting through the twilight.  “Choo-choo,” it sounded as it approached, and that rebounding noise jolted the distraught Jacob into action.

His breathing grew swift.  In fact, he was no longer breathing now; the wheels of the train had knocked him cold as it was approaching the platform of the Emmons Avenue station. At the last moment, Jacob`s disintegrating sense whispered a faint, hopeless, “no.” Still, he drew his knife and, pressing it against his thigh, crept up to the guy. As the train slowed down and arrived at the platform, Jacob stabbed him with the knife and then pushed him onto the tracks.