Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathon Safran Foer is a novel about a young boy named Oscar who travels the city looking for a lock, which he thinks would bring him closer to his father and hopefully help him get over his recent death as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attack. When Oscar travels around the city looking for the “Blacks” he never uses the train because of a fear of another terrorist attack, seeing as how the NYC subway is a possible target.

I remember when I was around four or five years old, my mom picked me up from preschool and we had to go somewhere and the only way to get there was the train. This was the first MTA experience of my life; I had never been on a subway train before. I do not remember much detail but what I do remember was the tremendous fear that I had when the train was approaching Brighton Beach station. The Q and B trains traveling towards Coney Island make a giant turn before they enter the Brighton Beach station. I remember looking out the window and having this fear that the train was going to tip over and fall off the train tracks and into the street below. I was fully relieved when the train finally finished the turn and pulled into the station, where we came out.

My first time in the MTA.