Another Story

So here's my latest. After my last meeting of the day, I hopped on the red line, got off at Fullerton to wait for the purple express. It doesn't come as often as every other train. No big deal. I stake out a spot on the platform and pull out my book. After a couple of brown and red trains go by, an older woman, probably late 50s or early 60s, says, "Are you waiting for purple train?" I said yes. She said, "I've been counting and 3 red line trains and 2 brown trains have gone by so far and no purple." I glanced at the schedule then at my watch. I said, "It looks like the next train should be here at 5:25, so another 7 minutes." Oh, she says. Goes back to counting, I go back to reading. The next two trains pull up and she interrupts me again, "Neither of them are purple!" I laugh awkwardly and ignore here. Another brown and she says, "This is ridiculous! I could be at Howard by now." I laugh again and read some more. One more red and she says, "I'm serious. This is ridiculous. I could be at Howard." Um, I truly don't care where you are. I said, "Trust me, it takes much longer to get there on the red line because there are some many more stops. It will still be shorter this way." "Yeah, but I could be there by now." OK lady, fine. You could be there.

Now it's been a few years since I've lived in the city so I don't remember all the ins and outs of the CTA. But another guy asks me about getting to Addison - red or brown. I tell him red and he says that's right, he can take the bus a little west from there. And the older lady jumps in and says, "Can he do that?" And I said, "What?" Seriously, you're talking to me again? She says, "Can he switch to the bus like that?" And I said sure, he has an hour to travel with his fare or maybe an extra 25 cents. And she says, "Yeah, but how?" I said, "With his ticket." "What ticket?" "The ticket you used to get into this train station." I can see the thought running through her head - shit, I threw it away. She's lying to me. "Oh. But my friend asked for a transfer on the bus earlier today and they said they don't give transfers." "Oh. I don't know," I respond. Go back to reading my book and thankfully she walks a few feet away. A minute later, a purple line pulls up. I can see the big purple sign. And the woman walks over and says, "A purple train is here. Finally!" I look at my watch. It's 5:26p. Thanks for pointing out the obvious. I watch where she heads and pick doors a car down. And then she turns around and follows me! I let her on first, watch her walk right and I shove myself into the huddle at the left, hoping that I can put enough people between us to stop the endless complaining and car counting . . .