Mystery Men 

I don’t take Metro-North too often on weekdays, but  found myself heading up to Southeast on the 10:48 a.m. last week to speak to some drug court practitioners about relapse issues.

I was way, way too early and wandered around Grand Central for a while, marveling at all the neat shops, the Starbucks coffee stations, the children’s toy store where I bought dinosaurs for my son’s kindergarten class, the cool pen store, and the jaw-dropping main hall.

I know all you Metro-North-ites are used to the constellations above you and the grand staircase, but I’m not. I’m a Penn Station-ite and let me tell you — Penn Station is no Grand Central Station.

I got to the platform at 10:15am — still way too early and the first person on the platform. The train was on the track and men and women were inside wearing blue jump suits and plastic gloves, filling bags with the detritus of the morning ride. I was reading my notes for my presentation.

I was wearing a suit – something I only do on presentation days – and rocking back and forth on my heels. A man joined me about ten yards away, a paper under his arm and a coffee cup in his hand. He was in a suit. He checked his watch.

Then, two men riding an orange mini-car, wearing clean orange jumpsuits, motored down the ramp from the entrance at jogging speed. They beeped the man with the paper and coffee out of the way, even though there was plenty of room to go around him. I stepped forward too, thinking they probably needed a wide berth.

They went down to the end of the track, turned around and put the car into park, facing me. They sat there for about ten minutes, neither one talking, just sitting there with the engine idling.

I stared at them. They stared at me. They were far enough away so there was no real tension, just curiosity.

Then, as if on cue, they moved into gear, passed behind me, ran up the ramp and were gone.

The train doors opened a few minutes later. There were about ten of us by then.

Just who were those orange men? What was the significance of that little orange car? And why were their uniforms so clean?