Commuter Tales: Making out in the storm at the 'L' station in Edgewater
I was getting on the Red Line 'L' at Edgewater - not at my usual station, but the one that's closer to the neighborhood library branch.
If you weren't in Chicago that day, let me paint you a picture. Temperatures plummeted, snow fell like it was no tomorrow, and, as expected, passengers huddled in the shelter areas around the platforms, where warming lamps provided precious heat. I was standing in the shelter closest to the northern end, with a middle-aged woman, a couple not much younger than me and a high school couple.
Very cosy high school couple.
It took me a bit to figure out, but they were making out. Non-stop. In spite of the cold, in spite of the falling snow.
A southbound train stopped at the platform. The middle-aged woman and the older couple boarded. The high-school couple stayed. And continued making out.
I could've given them some privacy, but we were standing under the heat lamps, damn it, and I just secured a spot near the button that would push the lamps on (those things turn off automatically after a few minutes). I sure as hell wasn't going anywhere. So I just did the next best thing to giving them privacy - I read a book I picked up from the library.
A few minutes later, the northbound train, my train, pulled up. I went inside. I figured that the couple would follow.
But they remained on the platform, and continued making out.
As the train pulled away with from the platform, snow still falling, rain still blowing, the guy looked up.
He must have caught me staring, because he smiled, as if to say.
"Hell yeah we're making out. What are you going to do about it?"