unfortunate story continued

"Saweet!".....We need to make sure we are the first ones on to make sure that we get a seat. So we rush onto the train and I hurry to sit down. This all happened within five seconds. Second number one: I am motioning to sit down. Second two: As I am sitting down I realize that there is a guy lying on the seat and that kind of creeped me out. Second three: I immediately stand back up and move to a seat directly across. Second four: I almost gag, "what is that horrific smell!?" in fact, yes I actually said to Seth, "blah what is that smell?" The stench seemed like layers and layers of B.O. and trash and alcohol. Second five: I am starting to realize that the smell is emanating from the man.

Whoa that was a lot of stuff to go through in five seconds!

So I notice everyone else who was getting on after us go through that same five second realization but they have enough time to turn around and get into a different compartment....Since we were the lucky first ones on, we were also the very unlucky ones who would be last to get off. Unfortunately, we weren't that lucky. The doors started closing before we could get out and so I move our little family to the opposite side of the compartment, next to the air conditioner, and I hope it blows good smelling air towards me. At this point, second fifteen, I hear Theresa's warning rattle through my brain..."if a train is empty there is probably a good reason why. Try to avoid those." And NOW I know why. I was kicking myself for not remembering her advice until it was too late.

During this memory recall I watch the man out of the corner of my eye just to make sure that he is not dead, or hurt and that is why he is laying motionless on the bench. (Now if you have been to New York before you know not to lock eyes with homeless people because they can react in a ton of ways; they can curse at you, be really adamant about how you don't need your money but they do,....and other more scary things I've heard stories about). This sounds heartless; but, when you are traveling with a little baby the situation is a lot more scary. You cannot anticipate what they will do and you are twice as slow as regular people because you have more things to carry.

Back to watching the man....He was breathing and did not seem to be hurt in any way. So I felt that it was definitely okay to leave this compartment. I start looking through the windows of the other trains and realize they are so packed there is no way our family would fit in there. So we sit in the strangling stench for two more stops. And at every stop I notice some unfortunate soul go through the same five second realization.

 What does one do in this situation? do you get out and walk the rest of the way home? twenty blocks? Do you call 311 and say there is a smelly man on my train?  Obviously there was not a lot we could do. We finally reach our stop and notice the man get up and stretch...oh but our story doesn't end here. He gets off at our stop. This is a terrifying thing because we use the elevator to go up three flights of stairs. And if you have been in an elevator in the subway before you can smell a very similar smell to that of the man (although I don't want to think about why) so we rush to the elevator and start pushing the button a million times (because that really does make the elevator come faster HA) We get in and notice that the man did not follow us but started rummaging through the trash, whew.

Moral of the story: advice can be as good as gold, but I guess you wouldn't know its value until you didn't use it.