God I love the Chicago Transit Authority. Not just because they make my commute to work more bearable with their shiny silver El trains. Not because it’s fairly inexpensive. No, I love the CTA because it’s like a box of spoiled chocolates. You never know which one you’re going to get, but you DO know that it’s going to be rancid.
Here’s a perfect example. A few weeks ago, I get onto a Brown Line car behind some guy whose probably in his late 20’s, early 30’s. He makes a beeline for the only open seats available – in the little booth-like section at the front of the car. Not all CTA cars have these 2-seater boothy things. If a car does have one, it’s either at the front or at the rear, depends on which way the train is traveling. Whatever. Usually, when a car has one of these unoccupied booths, it’s the first seat taken by a passenger. The second seat is then usually taken later on when the other seats are gone. This is because the booth is like having your own little private compartment, and if someone is already sitting in one of the two seats, you feel kind of weird sitting next to them if other seats are available elsewhere. It feels like you’ve intruded on someone’s little private suite.
On this particular morning, those two seats were mysteriously vacant. The train car was full, but no one was sitting in those seats. The guy in front of me was probably as surprised as I was that they were available. We both thought we had just won the El lottery.