Saturday morning. Having just come from Trader Joe's, I'm waiting on the platform at 23rd St to catch a C or E train. I've already had to move to two new spots on the platform because a boy, about 14, with thick glasses clearly containing the wrong prescription, has nearly knocked me over twice in trying to get closer to the signs to see which trains are running this weekend. An E finally pulls in, and as I'm getting on, a young woman asks if this the train "downtown to 168th". I explain that 168th is uptown and ask where she's going. She looks confused, and the doors are about to close, so I tell her to get on the train and I'll give her directions. She does, and after considerable back-and-forth, I discover that she's trying to get to 96th and Broadway. I tell her that she needs to get off at either 34th or 42nd and transfer to the C. She is confused again, and since I'm getting off to transfer at 42nd myself, I suggest that she transfer there as well so that I can show her what to do.
Just then, as we are pulling in to 34th St, two very tall men, who are in the process of making a verbal grocery shopping list, peer into my bags and one says, "Maybe she'll sell us her milk and bananas and then we don't have to go to the store after all!" Laughing, I tell them that I haven't bought milk, but they're welcome to a banana. We all chuckle. All, that is, but the woman, who is now convinced that the subway is dangerous because people try to steal your groceries (!). She decides to get off at 34th to flee the dangerous train. As she's leaving, I tell her to wait at the same platform for the C, but as the doors are closing she says, "But this is the platform for the E!"
I wonder where she is now?
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