Stupid Lady

# : 3
Your Name : At least not that stupid
City : neither here
State : nor there
Date : 19/02/2007
Time : 09:02
Who : A stupid lady
What : Last Monday morning as I got on the commuter train there was a lady who came frantically running down the stairs. My first thought was that there was someone chasing her or a bomb or something bad. She ran down the street to her car and drove into the transit parking lot – she pulled right into a disability-only parking space and she did not have disability plates (consider the fact that she was running). The streets surrounding the train station are no-parking zones on the first and third Mondays each moth for street cleaning.
This was Presidents Day though so I figured that she moved from one space where she was probably OK to a space where she was going to get towed for sure. She is almost back to the train when she stops short and returns to the car, the disability placard comes out of the glove compartment and she hangs it on the rear view mirror. Once again she runs back to the train, just before she gets to the platform the doors close. Apparently the conductor was feeling nice, possibly because of the light passenger load that day and opens the doors.
A minute later she scrambles up the steps frantically looking for her cell phone which disappeared at some point in the brouhaha. I helped her look but with no luck, I asked her if the ringer on her phone was on so we could hear it if I called. She thought it was a brilliant idea, but unfortunately for her it yielded no results. Later on the ride she asked if the private transit busses run on holidays – they don’t. She was going to be stuck at a station several miles from work with no transportation and no way to contact anyone. I offered my phone and she was able to get a co-worker to agree to pick her up.
She finally decided that the phone must have fallen from her pocket in or around her car. She asked the conductor to call the transit center and have the platform guard look in the parking lot.
Meanwhile we are fast approaching her stop so she asks me to call her if the conductor comes back with any news – I ask for her work number, she thinks for a second and dictates a number which I record in the margin of one of my textbooks. Then as she stands to leave the train she says “that is my cell number so you will be able to get me even if I am away from my desk.” I checked my recently dialed list and sure enough she gave me the number for her lost cell phone. Perhaps she is deserving of the disability placard after all.