Whap! The guy next to me whacked me in the head with his newspaper. The train car was packed. I had been swallowed up in the Mother of All Rush Hours aboard a commuter train. The previous train out of New York had broken down, and its passengers had swarmed into this one. I got swept into a corner, jammed beside a tall, heavyset man who was reading The New York Times.
I was shorter than the guy, so the top of my head was in direct range of his newspaper. Each time he turned a page, I got hit again. As if my day hadn’t been bad enough already. I had come into the city for a job
