« U.S.A. | Main | Mr. Geraghty Goes to Washington »

June 05, 2005

Subway Girl : A Love Story

Wandering through Barnes & Nobles in New York I came across a book that said would change my life. Now it wasn’t one of those weight loss books or even one of those self-help guides. It was simply a book that gave little words of wisdom for every day throughout the year. I picked the book up and opened it on a random page. The page read as follows: “Today look at every one passing you by on the street. Then imagine the possibility that each one may be the love of your life. Passing you by.” This struck me as what might just be the most important advice I’ve ever gotten. Little did I know I would be taking that advice very seriously later that day.

I took a stroll onward to Central Park. I had tried to find it yesterday but couldn’t. I know, I know, what kind of person can’t find an indefinitely gigantic woodland park in the middle of a city? Remember though that New York is big. Not just big but BIGGG. When I arrived in Central Park the thing that struck me first were the squirrels. Over years of sharing their home with people they had become tame. This, I was largely unaware of and so I watched them with cautiousness. There was a grey squirrel sitting on a log a few metres away. He was staring at me and I him. He jumped down from his log and edged closer to me. Without knowing that these intrepid little squirrels were friendly I took a few steps back as the squirrel took a few forward. At the time I was thinking, “this nutty little squirrel is going to attack me! Move slowly away. That’s it. Slowly.” But as I backed away the squirrel scampered over to a family having a picnic. They seemed unphased by its presence and started feeding it! And that my friends was the day I discovered that the squirrels in Central Park were friendly.

A little while later, as I was walking through Times Square I witnessed an unnerving sight. Out of nowhere dozens of fire trucks and NYPD vans pulled up and surrounded one of the skyscrapers. Moment’s later news crews for NBC and FOX arrived. In the sky there were hovering police helicopters. People like me began stopping and staring up at the skyscraper to see if anything was amiss. It didn’t appear to be. A man nearby who was unlocking his bike said “Your all looking up at that building when it could explode at any second! I don’t know about you folks but I’m getting my black ass outta’ here!” No truer words have ever been spoken and so I hurried on down to the subway to catch the F train back to Brooklyn.

After refilling my metro card I hoped onto one of the carriages. A few stops later a girl got on the train and sat beside me. To be honest at the time I hadn’t taken much notice. I was too busy looking at my subway map and trying to figure out that nearest stop to Third Avenue. It was then when I noticed this girl when she asked did I know where I was going? This wasn’t unusual. Over the past few days, numerous New Yorkers, upon seeing my map and my worried gaze into it, had offered their assistance. “Here,” she continued, “Show me.” I gave here the map and told her that even though I’d been here a week already that I still hadn’t really figured out where I was supposed to get of. After a moment she pointed at the station on 9th Street. “This is closet to where you want to go,” she said. “Thanks,” I replied. “Are you from Brooklyn?” I asked. “Yeah. Lived there all my life so far. You’re from Ireland, right?” I nodded. “I’ve always wanted to go to Europe. I’m thinking about going to Italy for my 21st this year,” she said. It was then when the lines of advice from the book I had read early that day popped into my head. “Today look at every one passing you by on the street. Then imagine the possibility that each one may be the love of your life. Passing you by. ” Here was a pretty girl, the same age as my self and interested in visiting Europe. If she wasn’t a candidate to be the love of my life, I don’t know who is. The book’s advice was so simple yet so true. At any moment this girl could be getting off at any of the numerous stations we were stopping at. In fact my own station was only three stops away! Time was short. I had to do something about the situation. But what? Ask her out for lunch tomorrow. This seemed to be my best option. Actually asking it was another matter. Two stops had passed already. I literally only had minutes left. This was it. I was going to do it. “Would…” But just as I went to ask, she began to talk. “Have you heard of a store called ‘Yellow Rat Bastard’?” she asked. I shook my head. “Well I work there. You should drop by tomorrow.” There is a God. Already it was my stop. “Hey, I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said as I stepped off the train. As the train pulled by me on the platform, I was looking in at the girl as she was looking out at me. And she was smiling.

Trains, Buses & Automobiles by Liam Geraghty appears every week in the Kildare Nationalist (page 6)

Posted by LiamG at June 5, 2005 09:39 PM