Dear the Woman on the Train,

I saw you on the train when I boarded after my chemistry exam on Wednesday (December 12th). You were already sitting down, and holding yourself with perfect posture. And honestly, I probably wouldn't have noticed a thing about you if you hadn't taken off your hat, ran a hand through your hair and then put your hat back on. At first, I thought it was a trick of light, I thought that I couldn't possibly see what I thought I was seeing.

But... It is kind of hard to hide two black eyes, bruised cheeks and a bruised chin with a hair and your hair. It is also difficult to hide the fact that there are literally two bruises in the shapes of handprints around your neck. Now, I'm sure that if you are reading this, you'd be explaining them away - but it's difficult to do so when I could see the individual fingers in the bruise.

Your cell phone rang and you pressed a button to talk and addressed the person as 'honey' and then started to quickly apologizing, begging the person on the other end to not be angry at you for being late going home as you had no control over the traffic on the roads. You told him that you were already on the train and you wouldn't be more than fifteen minutes to the station. But it seemed that it didn't matter as you suddenly stopped speaking mid-sentence and put your phone back into your pocket.

The woman next to you was also paying attention and asked you if you needed help, she had motioned to the bruising on your face and neck. You shook your head and said that it happened when you had fallen down the stairs by accident. Now, with that extent of bruising, it would seem as if you had thrown yourself down the stairs once or twice and then had the railing wrap itself around your neck a few times in order to get to get that kind of bruising.

I hope you get some help and that you leave the SOB that's been beating you up. Maybe you think that you can't get help, but you can go to a local hospital or police station - people will help you. All you need to do is walk out the door.