Wearily, I began the journey homeward after work on Sunday morning. As I positioned myself for a comfortable lean against a subway door that I am not supposed to lean on, I let the music play and began to drift.
I was on the L, at 8th Avenue, on my way to Lorimer. This was gonna be memorable...
Randomly, I will check the faces of my fellow late-night riders, just to form and then later on, pass, judgment(s). I noticed one guy, let's call him DeJean*, (African-American male, late 30's, potential pervert) gawking, with a repulsive gaze, at this haggard looking young couple that were passed the f*** out.
As they sat there, sound asleep, their mouths were gaped open, the side of her head rested on his shoulder and the back of her dome was pressed against the wall of the train. He was sitting straight up---his head supported by the train's interior wall. At this point, I just figured they'd been to hell and back, and when they wake up, things won't be any better for them, so just ignore 'em. I wanted to iterate this to DeJean as well.
It was later that I spotted (thanks to more impolite stares from my black friend) a laptop in the guy's lap. It was spitting out some very bad heavy metal grunge vomit, and made DeJean's stares more acceptable. I failed to notice the music earlier, due to the volume of my iPod.
I didn't mention one thing about this could-be homeless, but definitely helpless couple---they had a carriage with them. In this carriage was an infant, and this child looked to be somewhat fresh out of the hospital.
Shortly after I noticed DeJean noticing the distasteful music from the slumbering mucks, their baby began to weep.
To this I exclaimed, "Oh f**k."
DeJean had already let it be known how offended he was. DeJean disliked their appearance, their taste in music, and pretty soon, the bad parenting of these two possibly drugged-up subway-sleepers would send DeJean into orbit.
The baby was crying, a lot. Unfortunately, the parents of the child were so overworked and deep in sleep, (which is why I believe they were on something heavy because even with all of the noisy elements surrounding them, not to mention the uncomfortableness of the train seating and the fracas from the train itself, they were and remained, as I stated earlier, passed the f*** out.) it was hard for them to hear the cries---didn't even stir them a little.
DeJean got up from his seat.
"Excuse me! Excuse me!" He'd walked at least eight feet to get to where they were sitting. "Excuse me, your baby is crying! Excuse me!" He started nudging the female after the second "excuse me". All for naught. They didn't move. DeJean sat back down.
At this point, the whole train (about 15 people) was aware of what was going on, and began to stare remorsefully at the baby while leering venomously at its horrible guardians/parents. I too was a bit overwhelmed.
After DeJean sat down, another late-night rider, an Afro-American female (we'll call her Harriet), decided it was her turn. Harriet pursed her lips, took off her earrings, removed her extensions, and basically prepared herself for war. She wasn't going to sit down until those two were awake. This, I knew.
"Excuse me, ma'am! Excuse me, ma'am! Your baby is crying. Ma'am?!" She started nudging from the beginning, and there was a bit more elbow grease put into her nudges. As a woman, it had to pain her to witness such negligence with this infant.
They awoke.
"Your baby is crying!" Harriet exclaimed. Then she sat back down, a hero.
The female whose slumber had just been disturbed looked at she who had aroused her not in thanks, but in absolute contempt. She was angry with the woman for waking her up. She began to see to the baby. I was watching her as she did this. Looked to me as if she had no parenting skills whatsoever. I suppose that was to be expected.
*DeJean was wearing denim jean shorts. Hence the name, DeJean.
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