Sniffles on the subway

Have I told you guys the story of when I gave a kid a tissue on the train?

Okay well I'm gonna tell it.

It was my...sophomore year?, I believe, of college, and I was taking the train back from Chicago to school. I think it was the day that my parents met Jen's parents, and I went along because I wanted to see my fam. I remember watching the line of hand-holders in front of me, walking down the sidewalk: Mom & Dad, Pat & Jen, Jen's mom & dad, and considered grabbing the hand of a man I didn't know to even out the line.

Anyway, whether it was that trip or not, on the way back there was this boy--probably 11 or 12-years-old--on the train next to me and he sneezed.

Well, as sometimes happens when one sneezes, his nose began to run, and he looked at his mother in a kind of panic. Not really a panic, but it sounds funnier that way, yes?

Nonetheless he looked at her with a "Mom, my nose is running, help me!" look. While she seemed genuinely desirous to help him, she didn't have a tissue on hand, and I remember specifically she said, after apologizing and perhaps shrugging her shoulders:

"You're just gonna have to do the best you can."

There's just something about that statement, isn't there? I don't know what it is. It could sound rude, but I was there and I remember it being more sympathetic, but it's encouraging all the same. I guess that's maybe what it is: how often do you get encouraged when your nose is running? I have a feeling the profundity of such a statement in such a situation is probably why I haven't forgotten it.

Well it either occurred to me immediately or after some moments that I had a tissue in my bag. So I gave it to him.

He used it. I can't remember if he told me "Thank you" himself or if he did so after a maternal nudge. I want to say he said so on his own accord. I recall him being a pretty classy kid, which you may disagree with as you read on, but the ending of this story actually confirms his classiness in my mind.

Some moments after he used the tissue, he looked at me and asked if I wanted it back.

He really wasn't trying to be a brat, I think he just felt bad that he had put me out a tissue and didn't want to leave me empty handed.

I smiled slightly, and told him I didn't need it back.

Class act, that kid. I hope he's doing well these days. Man, he's probably in college now! All grown up, my once-upon-a-time homie.