A Random Act of Kindness - Gone Terribly Wrong!

OK, so I had the best night; I met my best friend AB for our annual "Christmas in February" dinner and we ended up both happily full and tipsy enough to not be drunk but just - tipsy, in the happy sense of the word.

Then I went to the train to come back uptown and at the station this kid, probably too young to be that drunk (but I am 28 and a former bartender so I generally have an eye for these things and have definitely been that drunk - but I am a cab whore, so I would have never been on a train that drunk or with any excuse to not take a cab) was staggering - oh so literally - on the steps down to the train, while smoking a cigarette in the station, which is definitely not legal, and something I would not have characterized this total stranger-kid as doing. I really thought he was going to fall down the stairs. And I thought, shit, this kid looks totally geeky, drunk beyond his power, and is carrying a messenger-style bag at his side and, shit again, he's going to fall, if not down the stairs then into trouble.

Eventually the train came and I got on and forgot about what I'd just seen because I see a lot and register it and then promptly forget it.

Except for this kid somehow got on the train, sat in the handicapped seats, and immediately passed out directly across from where I was standing. His iPod on, head lolling between his shoulders, messenger bag randomly flung on the seat beside him.

So when the time came for me to get off the train at the next stop, I thought I'd try one of those "random acts of kindness" that I often feel compelled to do but generally don't feel I have the power nor the boldness to follow through with. So I knocked the kid on his knee with my hand a few times. No response. Then I tried again. Harder. No response, except from the guy who had sat next to him, who asked me, "ma'am, is he okay?" And I said, "I have no idea, he just got on the train at the same stop as me, and he was really drunk (this I said in a whisper), so I thought I'd make sure he didn't miss his stop." Now, the entire car was looking at me (why are things so silent at this hour) and the train had one of its - pauses - in the middle of nowhere, in the midst of two stops - and this scene was strangely the center of attention.

I tried to wake the kid again, and the guy next to him helped me by shifting his shoulders, and the kid opened his eyes, each eye looking in an entirely different direction, and I just blurted out "hey, the train is way uptown now, and I wanted to make sure you were awake."

All of a sudden I felt so public and the train stopped anyway so I got off at my stop. What else could I do? Who knows where this kid ended up; it's not my responsibility, but maybe it is my civic responsibility to try to help someone who is where I have probably been before, when I have probably been helped by countless cab drivers, friends-of-friends, bouncers, strangers, even?

What I know is that I would have wanted someone else to wake me up if I were that drunk on a train, so, hey, I tried.