Never ask for a raise when you need it, she had been told by people who knew. But she had never thought to ask for one until now. When she needed it. As the train rode downtown, slower than it had ever been before, she mouthed the words of her elevator pitch, her fifteen minute pitch, her thirty second pitch, but somehow, though precision had got her the job in the first place, she was unable to keep the words ‘rent’, ‘food’, and ‘heat’ from finding their way to her lips. She was unable to keep the fear, of a middle-class raised girl who just realized that money doesn’t always appear, from her eyes, or the truth, that good suburban schools had taught her how to do the math, from her mind.
Between Chambers Street and Rector Street is the longest stretch of the 1 train (or at-least it has been since the stop in-between had it’s point of entry destroyed by planes). So it’s understandable why sighs were heard throughout the train-car when a old black man wearing rags breezed in as the door shut on Chambers. Nicole was too lost in the ‘What I’ve brought to the company’ part of the speech to notice him or the other passengers discomfort at his presence. She also didn’t notice as the old man removed a cup from his rags and found a spot front-and-center to give his pitch. But finally her pitch was interrupted when he spoke:
“LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! My life up to this point has been unfortunate.” he said as he began walking down middle of the train-car with his cup outstretched. “I Pray that your’s has not.”
New Yorkers react one of three ways to these episodes: Either they stare expressionless at the sad spectacle, or they pretend it’s not happening at all, or , the rarest kind, they give money. Nicole usually
belonged
to the
second, but was
today a
member of the first.Nicole usually belonged to the second, but was today a member of the first.
“IF you could please spare some money, or some change, or anything, on this beautiful morning, then I would be eternally grateful and, I believe god would smile down upon you.”
Someone did, they gave him a dollar, which he followed with a polite, quite “God Bless You.” He was almost at the end of the train now and had only gotten from this one person (The Wall Street area not being a great place to beg), but he continued smiling anyway.
“Thank You Ladies and Gentleman. And may you continue to have a beautiful day.” He said as the train came to a stop.
The doors opened and the relieved passengers cleared out, the man disappearing off to find another less stingy train. But Nicole didn’t leave, didn’t move, didn’t even budge as the doors closed on her stop and the train pulled away again. She rode it all the way to South Ferry, thinking of the man and the dollar he got.
Have you considered Subscribing to all of this madness?
