Good times on the train ride home today. For some reason the train was surprisingly empty, and I was lucky enough to grab a seat near the door. The train has four fold-down seats that people can grab during non-rush hour, and since I was leaving before the peak they were unlocked and available.
Each seat holds two people, and I sat facing another pair of lucky commuters. Usually the floor is pretty full with standing passengers, so it is rare to actually see the faces of the people sitting across from you. There was a middle aged guy who looked pretty grumpy, and next to him sat an older lady, also looking grumpy.
Standing between us was a middle-aged plump lady supporting herself by only holding her hand against the window. The train can be a bumpy ride sometimes, so it was clear to me that sooner or later it wasn’t going to be enough. The only thing that remained to be seen was if she would stumble forward towards the grumpy guy during braking, or back towards the lady sitting next to me during acceleration. Either way, I was making sure I had my hands free to get out of the way.
Sure enough, it happened. Apparently I was the only person nearby who anticipated it, because the rest of the passengers seemed surprised when it actually occurred. We were braking into Maiko station, and I watched as the plump lady shifted to the tipping point. She went to her tiptoes to try to reverse the inertia, but at that point it was a forgone conclusion. She twisted away from the fall, which had the odd effect of making it look like she was trying to sit down on this guy’s lap. He suddenly realized that something was not right, but by then it was too late to react. The lady hit pretty quickly, already twisting away into the next passenger to try to get out of a stranger’s lap. That had her rolling face-to-face across another lady who had no idea what the hell was going on.
Finally the plump lady managed to regain her footing, but by that time everybody on the train was watching to see what would happen. She apologized profusely to the two people who cushioned her fall, and they gave her irritated looks and showed no mercy. I don’t know if she had originally planned on getting off at the next station, but she did it anyway, and everyone was watching her go, perhaps wondering what the crazy lady was up to.
Anyway, it made for fascinating entertainment. If I had been reading a newspaper or book I would have missed it, and perhaps fallen victim to it myself. Phew!
