PP on the 15

I am going downtown to meet Jill.  We are having dinner then seeing an off-Broadway one-man show called The Junket.

I am sitting on the number 15 express bus, opposite a mother and her three-year-old son. The boy is playing peek-a-boo with me and the woman to my right.  We play along for a few minutes and then go back to sleeping (the woman next to me) and playing WWF (me).  What started out as cute has escalated into annoying.  The boy won’t stop, and keeps yelling to us, “Hey Lady.”  The mother keeps telling the boy to stop, and his response is to yell even louder, “HEY LADY!  LADY.  LAAAAAY DEEEE.” The woman next to me and I ignore him.  Then I overhear this conversation:

Boy:  I have to go.

Mom:  You just went before we left.

Boy:  Ya, but I have to go again.

Mom:  Can you hold it in?

Boy:  I guess so.

But a few minutes later the boy changes his mind;  he can’t hold it in. It’s a warm night and the bus window is open.  The mom takes the bottle of water she’s been drinking and tosses the water out the window as the bus barrels down Second Avenue.

In disbelief, I realize then what she is about to do. I get up and move, but not before I catch a glimpse of the mom positioning the bottle.

Maybe the mom didn’t want to spend the extra $2.50 she’d have to pay to get off the bus and then on it again.  Maybe she was tired and in a hurry to get home.  Or maybe she just didn’t care how offensive this might be to a standing-room-only bus.

It’s easy to understand why people prefer cabs.