This post is cathartic.

First some background. My apologies if you’ve heard this one before.

Sometime last year, I got hammered and passed out on the last train out of Grand Central as soon as I took my seat. Next thing I knew (an hour later), the conductor was yelling my station name loudly in my ear.

I jumped up, took 3 seconds to figure out where the hell I was, and ran to the doors - as they closed.

I then exited at the next stop, a fairly remote residential-area stop in a wooded area, with a handful of passengers. It was like 3 AM.

I stumbled in the darkness and pulled out my cell phone - DEAD BATTERY.

Amazingly, a young woman appeared out of the darkness and asked if she and her boyfriend could give me a ride home - they had observed the whole drunken affair where I slammed into the closing doors at my stop.

Those two kids were my heros. Who offers a ride home to a drunk on the train at 3 AM? Seriously.

Fast forward to last week.

My wife and I had plans for the evening - we were on a tight schedule, so I was to pick her up at the station after work and leave immediately from there.

As I waited in the car, I noticed her talking to a sleepy-looking teenaged boy as she exited the train.

When she got in the car, she said he had fallen asleep and missed his stop (2 stops back!). The conductor told him to get to the southbound platform and take the next train, but we weren’t sure he had another ticket or money or cellphone.

At the time, we figured we did not have the time to drive this kid to his stop - but you know what? We did have time - and if we didn’t have the time, we should have MADE the time.

Cause it was a kid, and he missed his stop, and I’ve been there, and it sucks. And even if I hadn’t had that happen to me before, we still should have done it - cause that’s what you do.

We spent a lot of that drive regretting the decision not to drive him to his stop, and pondering our bad karma.

My friend, whoever you are, our sincere apologies for not helping you.

-Chris