New York Moment: LXIX

(An A train, headed uptown at around midnight. ISAAC sits across from a MAN who is passed out, fast asleep, and sprawled across several seats. The MAN remains this way from 59th Street, when ISAAC boarded the train, until 168th Street, when he sits up, suddenly quite awake. He turns to the WOMAN diagonally across from him, gestures to her pashmina.)

MAN: Did you buy that?
WOMAN: Yes.
MAN: Are you warm?
WOMAN: Yes.
MAN: It looks very nice on you.
WOMAN: Thank you.
MAN: I can say that, right?
WOMAN: Sure.
MAN: Those things always make women look nice. I notice things like that. I look through the magazines and I see what makes a woman look nice. That doesn’t mean I’m gay or anything. Because I’m not. But, you know, it makes you look nice. Do you feel nice in it?
WOMAN: Yes.

(Beat.)

MAN: You going home?
WOMAN: Mmhmm.
MAN: You work in an office?
WOMAN: Yep.
MAN: Office jobs will kill you.
WOMAN: Ha.
MAN: Everybody thinks it’s 9-5, all the time, you know, but it’s not. I used to work at the World Trade Center, you know, I’d set up for meetings and calls and stuff, and you know what? Things would change. I’d set up and suddenly the meeting would be changed, and it’s like, it’s not everything, you know? It’s not everything.

(Beat.)

MAN: I truly think God saved my life. You know why?
WOMAN: Why?
MAN: If I’d still been working there, I’d be dead. But I lost my job because the Albanian mob was after me. They got me fired and came after me.

(Beat.)

MAN: Yeah, so God saved me, you know? Because I’d be dead if I’d been there, you know?
WOMAN: Yeah.
MAN: You want some chips?
WOMAN: No, thanks.
MAN: You have kids?
WOMAN: Nope.
MAN: That’s okay — you know what I say? You know what I say?
WOMAN: What?
MAN: Every woman is a mother. You know? It’s true.
WOMAN: Ha.
MAN: It’s true. Every woman is a mother, even if she don’t have kids. Because there’s nieces and nephews and cousins and kids that your friends got. You know? A mother’s job is never done.
WOMAN: Nice talking to you. Take care.
MAN: You, too.

(She gets up and exits at 181st Street.)

FIN.