Overheard in New York, 10/21/05

I knew there was something off when I got on the A at Lafayette this morning. When we slowed to a crawl before Hoyt we heard through the fuzz on the intercom that there was smoke at the W.4th stop. A half hour later, I got out and switched to the 2 at Hoyt.

A Jamaican woman gets on, intoning in a loud, raspy voice, talkin' 'bout "After ye die, the Bible says ye either gwine ta Heaven or ta Hell. Is any one here Satan's follower? Are ye gwine ta Heaven or Hell?"

Everybody stares further into their newspapers and books, reading the same words over and over, trying not to make eye contact. There is one fellow looking up, the bright-eyed and earnest young man who was helping out a woman and her baby earlier.

"Where are ye gwine? Heaven or Hell?"
That's it? That's all we get? No Limbo? No Purgatory? No reincarnation as mosquitoes?

She looks the fellow in his bright eyes.
"Where are ye gwine? Heaven or Hell?"

"Uptown!" says the bright-eyed fellow in all earnesty.

And the woman continues pushing on through the car like a hurricane, and in her wake, a collective sigh of relief.