Walking on a sine wave

I always prefer taking the subway when in NYC. It’s efficient and fast compared to taking a cab/ Uber and every ride comes with a side of people watching. NYC is full of interesting people and it’s subways are the best place to observe daily lives of its residents.

It was during one of these rides I witnessed this incident. I was waiting for my train to arrive when I saw a young woman crying while speaking to an elderly woman who was consoling her. She must have been crying for a while because her face was red and her eyes were puffy. I couldn’t hear their conversation but I could sense deep sadness in their mannerisms. As I was wondering what might be the cause of this distress and hoping that it would get resolve soon, a young man walked in with a subway worker who was holding a very large pole. The two of them walked right to the edge of the platform and starting walking along it which was dangerously close to the tracks. Now all the 10 people including the two women were wondering what was going on. Everyone got closer in a small group and there was complete silence. The next moment we heard the young man say loudly – “Here it is”. The subway worker walked over to the location, expanded the pole he was holding and opened the claw attached to it. He then lowered it towards the tracks and starting pulling it up. The suspense was killing and everyone had thoughts racing through their minds on what was about to come up in the claw. Finally it came up with a smartphone attached to a set of wired headphones. The young man had a look of relief and the entire platform starting clapping. He took the phone, thanked the subway worker and walked away happy.

I turned my attention back to the two women who were now standing next to me. The older woman was telling the younger one – “Good things do happen, they happen everywhere even in a New York subway station”. The younger woman had stopped crying and her expressions had changed to hope. It was like the universe had orchestrated the entire scene to send her a sign that everything will be okay, every problem has a solution.

I saw both of them board the train with smiles and I hope that good things will happen for that young woman… soon! As for me, I will continue my amateur anthropology observations