Walkin' On a Thin Line

Living on 91st St. at 1st Avenue in NYC put me in the general proximity of the 86th Street subway station, the 4, 5, 6. This is a very busy station that features local train service via the 6 and express train service via the 4 and 5. The upper level trains are local running in both directions while the express trains run on the lower levels in both directions.

One evening while waiting for the downtown local train on the upper level I saw a guy kneeling down onto the edge of the platform and then saw him turn so that his legs were swinging over the side. I've seen people do this before and have always been annoyed by it because when a subway driver sees someone sitting on the edge of the platform they'll throw on the emergency brakes and slow down the train which in turn slows down my own personal travel time in the process. This is of course, unacceptable. I have no tolerance for this type of nonsense and I was braced for another nuisance subway rider when the guy sitting on the edge of the platform did something I had never seen anyone else do on the subway up until then. In one smooth and fluid motion he pushed himself off of the platform and onto the dark filthy subway tracks below. The track area of the subway is a scary subterranean netherworld fit only for rats and other vermin. It seemed inconceivable to me that anyone, even an MTA worker, would be walking down there. But this guy, with no regard for the various creatures he might encounter on the tracks and obviously a little fed up with not being able to change direction from uptown to downtown and vice versa on the 86th street station, started to actually walk across the tracks. With barely enough time for me to register what was happening I saw him glide across the tracks, deftly navigating his way around the third rail and then as if he was not doing anything particularly out of the ordinary he nonchalantly propped himself up onto the uptown platform. Dressed in black, wearing a pseudo-cool, felt painter's cap, a black canvas bag swung over his shoulder and with a chinese character tatooed on the back of his neck, this guy's head was always looking forward and I never got a good look at his face. The only things memorable about him were his unique tatoo and the deliberate way by which he crossed never hesitating or tripping around the 3rd rail or even looking nervously about for oncoming trains.

Through all of this none of the other passengers so much as looked in his direction. There were no gawkers, people muttering in mock disbelief or any citizen's arrests made. Just a guy making a nice big "fuck you" to the MTA system.