It's unclear if she's fleeing the scene or just more adept at slicing through crowds. We stay the course for a couple of blocks. Physical impediments are nontransferable, but social ones are. Meanwhile, the woman is just ahead of me. In a huff, I tug my luggage to the next block, thinking about how this man is the worst person to have ever lived. Being in the social orbit of a person in a wheelchair does not entitle you to special accommodations and it certainly does not entitle you to someone else's cab. One of the very few things of which I am certain is that it's not possible to be handicapped by association. The cab wheels off in one direction, the woman in the other. Then he unhands the chair and springs into the cab by himself. He kisses the woman sweetly in what I assume is a casual assertion of their love. The man leans down and puts a hand on each armrest of the wheelchair. We do not throw our handicapped under the bus. The lack of fanfare is a kind of fanfare in itself, a celebration that society has not yet broken down into breadlines and ATM-based riots. Seeing as how my plane will definitely crash if I steal a cab from a woman in a wheelchair, I step aside.Īnd for a whole three seconds, everyone in this scenario feels very good about themselves. But this particular vehicle is the model with the sliding doors, designated for handicapped access. Under normal circumstances the cab would be mine. At long last, a cab drifts in our direction.

I make a big show of checking the time and rotating my suitcase back and forth. As the minutes pass and no cabs come, the tension grows. It's partially to avoid conflict and partially to claim innocence in the event of the finger. They pretend not to see me and I pretend not to see them, which is the kind of cutthroat strategy New Yorkers employ when embarking on otherwise benign activities. A woman in a wheelchair and her date, a man, arrive at the corner seconds after me. I am running late for the airport, trying to catch a cab on my street corner.

Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley