San Francisco Moment #4

Sometimes when I ride the N car in the mornings there's a guy on there with Down's syndrome. He's often interested in one of the ladies on the rain and will strike up a pleasant, boring conversation. One morning I saw him trying to talk to a young lady seated near one of the doors. Then a rough, really down on his luck Farmer John looking homeless guy sits down next to the girl. It's about all she can take. After a few seconds she gets up and hurries to the other side of the car. A beat goes by before the guy who was sitting next to her looks up and says to the homeless guy, "Jesus dude, take a bath!", then walks off to the other side of the train. The homeless guys mumbles a few disparaging, unintelligible remarks to himself and settles in for the ride. Another beat goes by and he notices the guy with Down's syndrome.

"You ever take an I.Q. test?" the homeless guy asks the guy with Down's syndrome.

"Shut up!" says the Down's syndrome guy. "I'll slap your mouth!" The homeless guy mutters a few more disparaging, unintelligle remarks, this time with a smile on his face. He gets off at the next stop, the guy with Down's syndrome one stop later.

I turn to the lady sitting next to me. "Man," I said, "That was something. I just watched that situation go from bad to worse." The lady looked at me. She nodded her head and smiled. She still had her headphones in.