Cane & Able

It was Monday evening, a little after 6pm, and I had just left work. I was about to cross the street and enter the subway when I passed a little old lady with a cane. She was slowly, but surely making her way across the street not paying any attention to anything, but making it before the light turned. After I passed her, I didn’t think anything more about it. I crossed the street, hung a left and made my way down the stairs of the subway. As I was walking down the stairs, I heard the sweet screeching of my train arriving. Like any New Yorker, I got excited when I heard my train coming. It’s like the proverbial “icing on the cake” after a long day. YESSSS, I would be home sooner than I thought.

So I picked up the pace, subway card in hand, and passed through the turnstile. I casually jumped on the train and moved to the side making room for any last minute riders. As I was watching the people rushing onto the train, I saw the little old lady with the cane pass through the turnstile like lightening. I thought...wow, she’s fast, but then again she’s had a lot of practice with subway cards over the years. She’s a pro. Before I knew it, I was watching Flo-Jo running to the train. The old lady was sprinting with her cane tucked under her arm. What happened in the last couple minutes? Did her joints miraculously heal? One minute she was feebly inching her way across the street...the next minute she was doing hurdles over turnstiles.

As she approached the doors, the door bell chimed signaling the doors would be closing. Little ol' Flo-Jo leaped onto the train (with the greatest of ease) with the doors closing right behind her. She had made it just in the nick of time. I looked around to see if anyone else had witnessed the little sprite other than me. Sure enough, another passenger had witnessed her magic and we both laughed. Shortly after, a young man offered the little old lady and her cane a seat.