People have been talking to me in public more than usual. Especially young couples on the trains–why, I don’t know. Full moon?
I was taking the F home around 9 pm – the train was mostly empty, so the only people near me were a couple sitting across the car – when I started to hear murmurs and to get an unusual feeling…the feeling when you realize that the people across from you seem to be trying to guess what your name is. They were being pretty quiet but when you hear things like “…Lizzy?” followed by a long pause, some muffled consulting, and then “Andrea, no…” something about the conversation isn’t normal.
After “…Lizzy?” I looked up and met eyes with the guy of the couple, and I had really started to think I was right about what was going on, so I couldn’t help breaking into a huge smile. He did as well, and then when I looked back down at my book he whispered excitedly to his girlfriend and then said “Lizzy.” in a more declarative way.
I had to abandon my book. “Nope,” I said.
“Ah, ah, ahh….Mary?”
“Not even close.”
“Tell us the first letter, at least!”
“Hmm…Okay. It’s C.”
“C..C…Cynthia??”
By this point we were one stop away from mine, and they were still calling out things like “Carly? Carrie?” so I made a show of standing up to proclaim “You’re never going to get it, and the next one is my stop.”
“Nooooo!” the girl said, and actually kicked her feet. The train stopped and the doors opened, and the guy made as if he was going to get off the train to follow me. “We have to know!” he said.
“It’s Claire…have a good night.”
“Goodnight…Claire!”
(I found the whole interaction charming and uplifting but my roommates’ response was THAT IS CREEPY AF. People! So different.)
