It was a nice day in the summer and I had made plans to hang out with my sister. She lives in the city and we planned for me to meet her at the train station in the city and from there were gonna head to A.C to sit on the beach for a bit, soak up some sun and cruise along the boardwalk. Whenever I go into the city I take the train for a few reasons.
1) I don't want to fight traffic and pay for parking. (and I figure by the time I pay for gas and parking a train ticket is cheaper)
2) It's green! I feel like I'm being more environmentally friendly when I use public transportation
3) As you read yesterday my car is not in the best shape right now.
By the time we got back from A.C I caught the 10:30 (something) train in the city and was headed back home. The train ride lasts about an hour. It had been a fun but long day so as the train rolled along I found I could barely keep my eyes open--they felt superglued shut.
After a while the train came to a stop and I managed to open my eyes just enough to squint out the window and I saw that I am almost at my stop. The station where I parked my car is close to my house and close to the grocery store, too. As I tried to wake my self up I glanced across the isle and saw someone looking at me. I realized it was Miguel, one of the guys from the night crew at the grocery store. He is from Mexico and barely speaks English. He smiled, pointed at me and "Philadelphia." I nodded. I glanced at my watch--by now it was close to 11:30--I'm pretty sure he should have been an work about an hour and half ago (but I'm not really sure). The train was quickly coming up to my stop and my mind started racing. I know that his train stop is a few stops after mine and there is a side of me that knows the decent, "right" thing to do is to offer this guy a ride to the grocery store so that he won't have to walk from the train station to work. It's what I have been taught by my dad and grandparents to do--help people out when they need help. They have shown me, by example, the importance of doing whatever you can to help people. So it should have been a no-brainer--but it wasn't.
All I kept thinking about was having to get in through the passenger's side door and climb over to the driver's side. My logic told him he probably wouldn't have cared--he would have just been grateful for the ride, but it was really, really embarrassing. I pictured him laughing as I climbed into the drivers seat. (This is really shallow of me--because it is really funny and if he was laughing I should have been laughing my ass off right along with him!) I'm really fortunate to have a car and the bottom line is it's a pretty funny situation to have a car that you have to climb in and out of (it could have been worse, I guess--it could have been 'Dukes of Hazzard' style). My other (very flimsy) excuse is that I was just so tired--I felt like I could barely stay awake long enough to drive myself home let alone drive Miguel to the grocery store.
Like I said, it should have a been a no-brainer, but it wasn't. The train came to my stop. I gave Miguel a small smile, waved and got off the train. I have felt really bad about it ever since. In my defense he is a slightly creepy and definitely annoying guy but I should have helped him out. It was a situation that had a simple solution but I made it awkward by not doing the right thing. Miguel sometimes still points at me, smiles and says, 'Philadelphia'. Which I'm pretty sure translates to something like, "You are the bitch that wouldn't give me a ride to work when we were both on the same train."
No comments:
Post a Comment