Standing Room Only: The Plight of the Aisle Dweller

Like a dog circling a couch to find the right position commuters will often traverse the length of an entire train to find the right seat.  Often a group of unlucky riders, the aisle dwellers, are forced to come to the conclusion that they won’t be finding one.  Sometimes, though, one lone aisle dweller refuses his destitute fate and rises up, a champion. 

It starts slowly at first.  People move along the train at a snails pace so when a person stops near the door no one gives it a second thought.  But soon another lines up behind him, and then another, until that heart sinking moment when you realize the line extends door to door and you’ve been relegated to the lowly commute of the aisle dweller. 

Soon though there is a beep, a glimmer of hope as the voice of a merciful god of the train is heard from on high, “ladies and gentlemen standing in the back, there are plenty of seats towards the front of the train.”  Relief washes over the aisle dwellers instantly strengthening their resolve.

The fiendish man in the front remains, unwavering in his obstinance.  Whatever satanic sounds he had pumping through his ear buds had blocked the words of the great god of the train. 

“Can we move up please?” a cry of desperation from an unidentifiable place in the crowd.

The man in front slowly turns and in the loud nasally voice of a man clearly plagued with problems of the adenoid he retorts, “and just where do you expect to go?”

“He just said there are seats in front,” came from yet another spot in the crowd. 

The Angry Adenoid took the smallest step he could muster before planting himself firmly in the way of the now desperate queue.   It was clear this was going to be a losing battle for the downtrodden aisle dwellers.

Just as all had given up hope though, a daring hero from a train car far away appeared as if the great god of the commute had answered the prayers of the humble aisle dwellers. 

Upon entering the car the man stopped for just a brief moment, assessed the crowd, adjusted his backpack, and continued his push forward.  He politely excused himself past the car long queue until he reached Andy Adenoid.  The aisle dwellers looked on, a glimmer of hope twinkling in their eyes, as the gallant knight gently gave the man with the nasally voice a polite yet firm double tap on the shoulder and excused himself past. 

The floodgates had opened.  Each and every aisle dweller scurried past the adenoid riddled man to find their very own seat on the wonderfully mind numbing monotony that is the daily commute.