Pissed, Narrowly Missed

I had a close call on Metro the other day. I believe I was heading home from somewhere, although now that I try to grasp them, the details of it all prove elusive. The point is that I had gone down to the platform of a subway station (I believe in Hollywood), and sat down against one of the columns there. For a while, there had not been a ton of incidents with unruly people there, and I guess I got complacent about that, not that my attitude matters.

This guy staggers by and plops himself down right next to me. He was eating from some kind of to go box,which I have to point out you're not supposed to do there, but I'll let that slide since he was also committing the more serious offense of being drunk in public. I found myself struck with fear over what he might do. I have no way of knowing whether this man is prone to violence, but at the very least he could have rendered me uncomfortable with inebriated conversation for some time.

Luck was with me, however, as the train came moments after his first slurred words to me (which I think were 'where's the train?'). With great relief, I pointed it out and got up to find a train car that he was definitely not going to be on. I sure didn't want to take the chance that he'd feel a connection  and seek to talk at length aboard the train. Who's to say he wouldn't wind up clinging to me all the way to where he'd see where I lived?

Of course that was a lot of paranoid imagination. No such thing happened, nor was it actually likely to happen. It ended where it was going to happen- with the arrival of the train- and only a late train would have prolonged things. That's fine by me, but I have to admit the guy wasn't that bad. It was only my fears of what he might do that ever bothered me, and arguably that's as much on me as on him, but I do also feel that he's nobody I want to see again.