A steamy moment

The other morning I was on the train on my way to work, as usual. I was in the fifth row (my preferred seat) from the front of the car. Minutes in to the trip, I was sitting with my headphones on, again per usual, with my head looking down, reading a book in my lap.

Out of the corner of my eye I detected a figure leaning against the empty seats of the row in front of me. Not someone sitting down, but still mostly standing, but leaning down and facing toward me. And then a voice spoke, although I couldn't hear it over the music playing in my ears.

I glanced up to see it was a woman who had been sitting up in the first row, next to a bicycle. Along with one other man, in the third row, the three of us were the only ones in the car at that point. She rested one knee on the seat, steadying herself with one hand grasping the bar, and holding an opened cell phone in the other.

I took out one of the headphone buds out of my ear to hear as she repeated what I presume she said the first time.

"Do you know how to spell 'steam'?" she asked, with a noticeable but not heavy Spanish accent.

Without hesitating I started spelling it out. "S, T, E, A, M."

She started repeating it back. "S, T, E…"

"A, M."

She thanked me and returned to her seat up front, next to her bicycle. I speculated that she was texting something that required that term, as she didn't speak into the phone. However, I didn't watch; I finished the passage in the book I'd been reading.

This was somewhat unusual, I will admit.

I am merely glad she asked me something I knew.

~

The thing is: She had to pass this other man in order to get to me. Did I seem more apt to know how to spell the word she sought? Was that because I was reading? Or was it because of appearances?

The man had graying hair, but that would not play into this (I imagine).

Perhaps it was a matter of her figuring that I'd know it in the language she needed, and that the man might not know it in that language (but in a language she already knew).

That seems kind of insulting to him.

But maybe he was dozing and she didn't want to disturb him. I could only see the back of his head; I don't know whether his eyes were open or closed.

~

What's most interesting to me, however, is this: She actually got up and walked several steps to ask a stranger how to correctly spell a word, and just for a text message.

That mode of communication is not exactly renown for adherence to conventional spelling.

Maybe there's hope for the future after all.