Encounter with “scary” people

I STAND at a Minneapolis light rail ticket machine, looking stupid. ​

“You lost, bro?”

I look over to see a young woman and two young men, all in their late twenties, whose clothes, grooming, tattoos, manner, and—and oh, how I hate admitting this—hues suggest mugger stereotypes pulled straight from a movie. Two of them seem a little neurodivergent.  The one addressing me more than seems.

“I’m trying to figure out which train goes to the airport,” I answer.

The young man who addressed me shows me where to stand. 

The young woman says, “Do you want Terminal One or Two? It should say on your ticket.” I didn’t know there were separate stops. I check. Terminal One. I thank her for the tip.

I overhear them worry among themselves if transit enforcement will be checking for tickets. Their pooled change is enough only for one. A ticket costs a whopping dollar. I return to the machine and buy them two tickets.

The four of us huddle under a heater, chatting, a curious quartet in which I look utterly out of place. A train approaches. “Not that one, bro,” the second young man cautions me, “that’s the Green Line. You want the Blue Line.”

They are bound for a stop on the same route, so when the Blue Line arrives, we board together. Before I can take a seat, the train jerks to a start, sending me sprawling. Concerned, they ask if I’m ok. Yes, thank you, I am.

Their stop comes first. As they disembark, the young woman reminds me to watch for Terminal One.

They number among the most thoughtful and courteous locals I have encountered in my travels.

As I sit in the airport awaiting my flight, it occurs to me that, from their point of view, this 70–year–old white guy could have represented a negative stereotype in his own right. Perhaps privileged, disapproving, afraid, disinterested, racist, or uncaring. But, no. They saw someone who looked lost, and reached out to help him.

It’s hard to know when to damn first impressions. It’s not always safe to do so. All I can say is, I’m glad they took a chance on me, which gave me an opportunity to take one on them.