This is based on an occurrence I witnessed some 15 years ago on the train, and was thinking about today.
The scene: A double decker Metra railcar out of downtown Chicago toward the northern suburbs. On the upper deck, a college-age guy with a styrofoam cup, that held a small amount of some beverage. On the bottom deck right below him, a 30-something woman with two smallish children, a boy and a girl. The guy’s cup slips somehow and falls into the lower-level aisle, causing some splash that soiled the girl’s shirt.
The guy looked over and saw that his slip was not without consequence. He said “sorry” and proceeded to take a bill out of his wallet (didn’t see how much) and extended his arm down to hand it off. The mother said “thank you” and accepted the bill. No further words were exchange and there was no further interaction. From memory, I don’t think they even made eye contact. I have no idea whether it’s material to the event, but the upper-level guy and the lower-level family were of different races.
To this day I wonder what I witnessed. At first I had the sense that it was a way to avoid addressing the event, almost disrespectful to the family–as if to say “Here’s a fiver, get lost”. But perhaps it wasn’t so sinister? Was it naturally expected that the spiller would pay some amount of cash to cover cleaning expense or otherwise compensate the outcome of his “drinking problem”, and no specific acknowledgement or conversation was required? Was there anything to the fact that the mother said “thank you” without mentioning the underlying event at all?
What do you think?
