71 pages • 2 hours read

How Long 'Til Black Future Month?

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2018

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Story 20Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Story 20 Summary: “The You Train”

An overworked woman tells a friend an anecdote about finding out that, “the B train doesn’t run at night” and having to wait forever for a train home because of the mistake (354). Another day, she complains to the same friend about a girl being rude to her during a meeting at work. After the meeting, she gets lost on the train going home, compounding her bad day.

Time goes by and she tells her friend she stopped online dating but is still thinking about her ex, Nick. She is worried she missed her one chance to get married. She tells her friend she discovered that a “P train” exists (357). She also explains she has been having trouble getting motivated lately, that the world is “boring” and the “trains […] crowded” (357).

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Time passes and she wonders aloud to her friend if she is right for life in New York City. She doesn’t feel tough or mean enough to fit in. She feels like everyone is walking on her. She pauses in her story to thank her friend for being supportive when no one else is.

Time slips by and she admits to her friend that she thinks she is “hallucinating” trains that no longer run the tracks (359). She keeps seeing trains she knows no longer exist. She expresses a desire to find out where the ghosts trains are going, and her friend expresses a concern for her mental stability. She thanks her friend for listening.

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Not long after, she feels like she is being a nuisance to her friend because she needs so much attention. She tells her friend to let her know if she gets annoying, that she wants to be respectful of her friend’s duty to her family. She says she wishes her friend were more available but understands why she isn’t.

A significant amount of time passes before she speaks with her friend again. She apologizes for causing her friend to stress and admits she was “talking crazy” the last time they spoke (360). She discusses riding a train she knows does not exist. She closes the conversation by apologizing for having been so wrapped up in her own pain that she did not realize how much her friend was suffering as a result of family life.

Story 20 Analysis

Like so many modern institutions that have been critiqued so far in this book, the traditional nuclear family comes under great scrutiny in “The You Train.” The speaker in this story is haunted by what she thinks should exist—be it train lines or relationships. She goes on countless vapid dates with strangers because society dictates that to be happy, one needs to be part of a family; in order to have a family, the woman believes she needs to be part of a romantic relationship. Furthermore, she is so caught up in the supposed bliss of the nuclear family that she never begins to question her friend’s happiness or mental health. She never considers that a symbiotic relationship with her friend would give her some of the stability and happiness she thinks she will find in a nuclear family.

In the end, her desire for family and connection is so strong that she hallucinates seeing train connections that do not exist, as if her mind is constantly trying to create a bridge that is not there. Scrutinization of the traditional family can also be seen in stories like “Valedictorian,” when Zinhle forsakes her biological family for one that actually values her, and in “Cloud Dragon Skies,” when Nahautu chooses to leave her biological family and start her own on another planet. It is evident throughout all these narratives that the traditional nuclear family is neither necessary, nor even ideal, for success and happiness.