OK Regression

My excuse is simple. I was tired and hadn’t slept much, working on a grant application and burning the candle brightly into the night.

 It’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.  

The F train doors opened. I was at my usual pole position. But a man, balding with red hair Friar Tucked in a halo, tan striped polo shirt on his back, and soft briefcase in his hand, waited in front of me. He was there first but I crept up closer to him as the crowd of Outsider Knuckleheads (OKs) pulled in tighter around me and the doors opened.

He took a half step forward and waited as Insiders made their way out of the doors.

I waited a fraction of a second then hedged up closer to him, attempting to pass him on the inside. 

“Wait,” he said in a soft voice, stopping not just me but a woman who tried to end-run him.

 

She came face to face with an Insider and did the one-two left-right shuffle until the Insider found her way past and out.

“Wait until they get off,” the man with the Friar Tuck said again as one more person left the car.

Then we all got on board, checked in our OK regressions by the calm words and demeanor, the sanity, of one soft voice.

Once on the train I looked at this man and smiled. He made eye contact and smiled back, then nodded. I nodded too.

The woman who had done the left-right shuffle looked up at me. Before you could say “Outside Knucklehead,” we all shared huge wide grins.

Thank you, man with the Friar Tuck. Thank you.

–Joe Lunievicz