Unspoken Competition

Time for a funny story.

I ride the train and bus every day to school.  The train drops me off and picks me up in the backyard of my school, so it's really quite perfect.

It takes one stop down the track to get to my bus, no big deal.  So when I get on the train, I just hang on right by the door so I can hop right off.

This is where it all began.

I noticed this lady who would get quite frustrated when I would stand by the door.  At first she would just stare at me when I'd get on the train.  She was a plain lady.  A little short and quite stout, but always dressed professionally.  I could tell she was single and she always slept on the bus with her baby blanket that she carried around in her backpack.  Not weird at all, right?

One day in particular I got on the train and assumed my normal position near the doors.  She immediately stood up, walked over, and stood right next to me in the doorway.  I waited until we got to our stop and pressed the button to open the door and proceeded to walk down the step.  Little did I know she was going to barge in front of me so she could get off first.  Because of her stout-ness, I still could walk faster than her at my normal pace and beat her to the bus.

Every day from then on she would be standing in my spot near the door so she could get off the train first.  And every day I would walk faster than her and still beat her to the bus.  It became this unspoken competition between us.  And I LOVED it.

Yesterday was an exception in her behavior.  It started out normal.  She was in the doorway waiting for me to get on; I sat down and smiled at her.  She glared.  Nothing out of the norm.  The exception was, when that door opened, that lady took off!  When I say take off, I mean it was like a day at the races.  Full speed ahead, she bolted toward the bus.  The rest of us were walking while she booked it to be first on the bus.

It made my day.  And I hope we always ride the bus together.

I'm secretly planning to one day take the earlier train and be waiting for her on the bus.  Just smiling.  I think she would like that :)