Chivalry has its rewards

On my way home today I got stuck in a packed 6 train just before it got to my stop (51st & Lex.). Apparently there were power problems and a train was stuck in the station.

After the procedural “…traffic ahead of us, we’ll be moving shortly” announcement came an unusual emergency announcement saying they’re working on power issues. After 10 minutes, one of two women (I was going to say ‘girls’ but I don’t know why I didn’t) standing in front me managed to squeeze in to fill up the last remaining gap on the bench. They were talking about coming down for spring break and having a great time getting lost and stuck in trains, etc. at which point I quipped about how I live here and I still get lost and stuck in trains. We had been stuck for a while and I had overheard their conversation for about 20 minutes so I figured I throw in a joke and see what they made of it.

It would’ve either ‘hit’ and I would have had someone to talk to for a while during this fun-filled claustrophobic experience or it would’ve ‘missed’ and we would’ve had an unbelievably awkward moment. They laughed and introduced themselves and I, after sounding out my name a few times, did the same. I offered Annie my seat so she could sit down next to her friend and began to get up when she asked where I would sit then. Her friend interjected and told her to ‘just sit on my lap’. After a few minutes of chatting about what they’d done during their vacation so far her friend (Laurie) told her she was going to need to have her leg amputated if she sat on it anymore at which point I jokingly stuck out my knee and gave it a couple of invitational-taps and to my surprise she actually shifted over. So 35 minutes into what usually would’ve be a pain in the ass delay I was talking to a complete stranger who was sitting in part on my lap about places to eat and hang out in the city.

Just under the hour mark of being delayed the train jerked, stopped, jerked again and then began slowly moving. After helping some people off of us who had completely lost their balance and fell onto other people when the train started moving again, I began to pickup my bag when Annie quickly grabbed my hand and wrote down her number. I was pretty shocked but eventually managed to say “I’ve got some time between classes tomorrow…” I was getting up to leave and could tell she was turning pretty red. She soon after squeaked out a “Yeah, call me.”

I guess chivalry has its rewards. The MTA still sucks though.