Close Encounter

So I was standing on the subway platform last night at the station near my office, waiting for the local train, when I noticed something. A brown blur that shot by at high speed - I saw it before I heard the scurrying noise of its feet on the tiles, but once I heard it I knew what it was. It was a rat, a half-foot long subway rat, scampering down the platform. I'd seen them on the rails before, but never on the platform, where people line up. As the rat ran down the platform, the people recoiled and backed away in turn, sort of like spectators doing the wave at a football game; a high school girl screamed. The guy standing next to me and I just looked at each other for a split second, then shook our heads. I went back to reading my magazine.