Saturday, October 27, 2007

Only on the A in NYC

After waiting patiently for a downtown local C train at 135th Street and running across the platform at 125th to catch an express A train, I was standing in the first car with Leyonna and the teenage girls from the mentoring program we work with every other Saturday. Somewhere between 125th and 59th, I noticed my friend Max swing around one of the subway poles and shimmy over to where I was standing. I hadn't seen Max since the day he graduated from Juilliard last May and here we were on the same subway car heading to midtown.

I told him we were taking the girls in our program to the Black College Expo at the Jacob Javits Center on 34th Street; he was taking visitors sightseeing - first stop: Times Square.

"So you're up at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday to go sightseeing?" I laughed. He shrugged, "Yea ..."

And while we were chatting he glanced across the aisle and his mouth dropped, "Hi!"

I turned and watched as he bounced over to hug another girl seated on the opposite side of the subway car.

"I don't know what's going on with this corner!" he laughed. It reminded me of Terrence's A-train experience, and again I wondered how many times I get on the subway and there is someone I know - or knew - on an adjacent car or passing me going the opposite direction on the same line. After all, it is a city of 8 million people milling about a 22.7-square mile island.

"Anything is possible. This is New York."
- Carrie Bradshaw, "Sex and the City"

No comments: