I was on my way to class the other night on the usual overly crowded B-line sandwiched between two male strangers (that’s what I like to refer to as a “Manwich”) when I noticed one of them was acting a little odd.
At first glance, this guy seemed fairly average. He was about 5’9″ or so, probably in his mid-twenties, well-dressed (nice pants and nice shoes), and decent-looking. Except for his coat. It was a cross between a military style coat and a parka. There’s something about a guy, who is not a resident of an Arctic state, province, or country, wearing a fur-trimmed hoodie that just rubs me the wrong way. I don’t know why. It just isn’t right.
Anyway, I noticed he kept looking around and seemed a little agitated. There’s plenty of people who are afraid of tight enclosed spaces and being packed like a sardine in a subway train that’s speeding through the underground of Boston could very understandably make that sort of person a little panicky, to say the least. Then I realized that, though he was looking all over the place, his eyes kept coming back to the red T-shaped pull-brake on the wall of the train car for use in emergencies. No one else on the train seemed to notice this guy’s strange fascination with it. So, I tried to ignore it. After a couple stops went by, he began to stare at the brake intently.
And then he reached out and touched it.
More like “caressed” actually. He slowly reached out one finger, staring it down all the while, and lightly ran his finger over it.
Really freaking weird.
Of course, I now was terrified this man was about to pull the brake, stop the train halfway between two stops, and I’d miss my class!
My question is this: why is something like that SO easy to access? I know it needs to be accessible in the event of an emergency, but shouldn’t there be a case or something around it like they have for other emergency equipment? Break the glass, pull the brake. Not just “Anybody could pull it without warning or need.” It just seems far too easy.
Fortunately, after continuing to gaze longingly (for lack of a better word) at the brake for another stop, this particular oddball got off at the Kenmore stop.
But the bad-touching on the train didn’t end there.
When we stopped at Kenmore, another young man boarded the still very full train. As anyone who rides the Green line knows, there are certain places on the newer train cars where, unless you have abnormally long arms, you will not have anything to hold onto except a wing and a prayer. This young man was unfortunate enough to be forced to stand in one of these spots near the doors. Since he was tall, his solution to this problem was to hold onto the plastic molding jutting out above the doors that shows the Green line routes.
This is, as a general rule, a very bad idea.
Most transportation-related things in Boston are made from shoddy materials (the Big Dig being a case-in-point) and the T is not an exception. The plastic on the train cars is just not built to hold up a grown man clinging to it to avoid falling onto the people next to him.
Naturally, he broke it.
It fell right off and smacked him on the head. It’s like a car crash you know is about to happen and you can’t do anything. You see this person reaching for that plastic rim and you know what’s going to result, but you can’t stop it because the train is too crowded for him to hear you anyway. The poor guy now had to go from holding on for dear life, to desperately trying to prevent what he was formerly holding onto from falling on him or anyone near him.
And this is why you should always keep your hands to yourself while commuting.