Walk the line

It was only a matter of time before someone got hurt over that ‘yellow line rule’ they have on all the railway platforms.
You know the one…the announcement comes over the PA system about 5 times a minute to ‘please stand behind the yellow line’
It isn’t a silly rule. The yellow line runs down the platform about 3 feet from the edge as a guide to stay away from the edge and the incoming trains.
I always stand behind the line, not because I’m a goody two shoes but because I don’t want to have a close up look at the underside of an approaching train. In fact, I’m paranoid about it. I usually stand behind other people so that I don’t have to be near the edge of the platform, it’s really scary sometimes, people push as the train comes into the station, they don’t care if you are worried that they might be pushing a little too hard all they are concerned about it getting onto the carriage as quickly as possible to procure a seat. They don’t even let people off the train first, they just push and elbow to get on first and get that valuable seat.
So, there I am, at Wynyard. Its 5.50 pm and (unusually for this time of night) the platform is almost barren of waiting passengers. Fearfully I approach the ‘yellow line’ and stand with the toes of my shoes barely touching the edge. I stand with my left leg forward and my (not inconsiderable) weight being taken by my right leg which is positioned behind me. I figure that this posture, whilst being pretty uncomfortable, will secure me on the platform in case of a stray elbow in the back. (I told you I was paranoid) A crowd started to gather around the spot I was waiting, my train was next and there was about 2 minutes until it arrived. I looked around nervously, there must have been about 30 people hanging around me, I thought to myself “ I’m outa here” but I couldn’t move, no one was letting me out they were all in lemming mode and no one was getting out alive!
There were so many people by this stage that anyone that wanted to walk further down the platform had to push past, this was almost impossible so they started walking in front of the yellow line.
Now for some this might be an expedient way to get from A to B but for a person who is concerned about having to watch someone being minced by train wheels it isn’t really a smart thing to do.
My anxiety levels increased 10 fold as people started walking on the wrong side of the line. After the first 2 or 3 it became really annoying as they didn’t really have enough room to walk unless they turned side on (which they didn’t) so of course they kept bumping into the people who were on the right side of the line.
A girl of about 25 walked past me and shouldered me in the chest, if you are a regular reader I refer you to my entry entitled ‘a Jonah day’ and you will understand why being nudged in that particular spot was not pleasant for me.
I am not particularly proud of my reaction here but in my defense, I was in considerable pain and I did react instinctively and not with malice. I gave her a shove right back. Her foot got caught on my left foot and she tripped. Her arms failed about, her hand bag went flying and all I could see was that she was going to fall backwards down onto the tracks. Before I could grab onto her a hand shot out of nowhere and managed to grab her around the sleeve of her shirt. I’m not sure who was whitest, me, the rescuer or the tripper and I’m still not sure how much of my lack of colour was to do with anger and pain rather than the enormity of what I had done.
I handed her, her bag (someone had rescued it), she said nothing. She didn’t thank her rescuer, she didn’t yell at me for shoving her, nothing. She just walked off.
By this time I was contrite and suffering from adrenalin overload and upset, the man who had just saved that lady’s life gave me a little pat on the arm and told me not to worry about it he could see she was an agro little so and so as she was walking down the platform.
Here is the twist, I’m guessing here but it makes sense. She was angry because she couldn’t get down the platform to where she wanted to be because it was so crowded. As she was ‘walking the line’ she decided to push her way through all those inconveniently placed people who were in her way. Anyone who didn’t move was shouldered aside. Her rescuer reckoned that she didn’t yell at me because she deliberately smacked into me.
She really should have thanked him, I really don’t think she would have recovered her balance in time to stop herself from falling and the train came in just seconds after.
I did thank him, if it wasn’t for him I would be living with the thought that I had contributed to her being injured or killed, as it is I have a guilty conscience at almost causing an accident.
I really do believe in being assertive, but there is a fine line between being assertive and just plain aggressive. Young women in particular, these days don’t know the difference. That person deliberately hit me and aimed for a place that would hurt just because I was in her way. I would have moved if she had asked but she chose to use aggression.
I have had some time to reflect on her behavior, and mine. If she had hit me in the arm or shoulder I would have been surprised and probably would have mouthed off but I would never have pushed back. Her deliberate cruelty, bad manners and foul temper could have put her under a train. I hope she thinks about that next time she is in a bad mood but I doubt it.