Trainspotting

On my way home from work today, I was jolted awake by a guy screaming and cursing his head off. Like any other commuter in his right mind, I pretended not to hear him even though his screams filled the whole car, and went back to sleeping to discourage eye contact. About five minutes later, when I opened an eye to check on him, there was a full blown fight going on between him and another guy. They punched and kicked and shoved while most of the female passengers, including myself, migrated to the other end of the car. It was one of those cars without an exit so nobody could transfer. Seconds later an MTA employee came barging in from the other car and tried to calm them down. He called for police assistance on his radio. The wannabe hero had the banshee pinned to the floor on his knees while the MTA employee swatted at his hand periodically to keep him from hitting the guy. The train seemed to take forever to get to 36th Street from Pacific. At 36th, a cop came in to break the fight while the MTA guy screamed at rubberneckers to step away from the train. I took a cab home.