A few days ago, a shooting broke out on the A train because two guys and a woman drank testosterone for breakfast and chose violence putting the lives of everyone in danger.
And just now, I’m on the N train listening to my music when I suddenly see a bunch of people getting off and staring worriedly past me. Immediately my Spidey senses go off so I turn off my music. If you’re not a New Yorker, then you might wonder why in the world would people suddenly exiting the train be a red flag? Well after some time living here, you know which people get off where and a bunch of random people getting off at NYU when it’s not a school day is a huge red flag. It’s a university stop so you normally don’t see many getting off there if at all on a weekend. But not today.
Turns out my Spidey senses were right. When I turned down my music I heard someone behind me yelling. “Hello? HELLO?! CAN YOU READ THE ROOM?!! YOU’RE HAVING FUN IN FRONT OF ME RIGHT NOW WHEN I’M HAVING A BAD TIME! WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME! I KNOW YOU CAN SEE ME! RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW. RIGHT NOW. I KNOW YOU CAN SEE ME!! …”. At that point he went straight robot mode and just started repeating gibberish. Over and over.
Clearly the guy was having a meltdown on the train and I wasn’t going to turn around to see who he was talking to, if anyone. I also wasn’t going to fuck around and find out so I got off at the next stop … And so did about 8 other people behind me. I knew they were abandoning ship for Mr. Crazy because all of us just got onto the next car to get away from “the problem”.
Lesson learned. There is no shortage of crazies in this zaney city. Keep your eyes peeled. Trust your senses. When you see people moving shifty, you better listen.