Things You Think About At Night Before Traveling Alone

When I was in New York with my dad, one day we were riding the subway and my dad was looking at a map. I was not about to look at a map on the subway and mark myself as a tourist, but my dad was too--we'll go with mature--to care, and rightly so. There was a man sitting across from us with his daughter in a pink stroller. She was about two. He got off at the stop we did and then he asked if we needed directions. We took him up on his offer. He picked up the stroller and carried his little girl up the steps of the subway station and out into the sunlight. We followed him. He had a light accent and Asian features and I realized he was probably an immigrant himself. But now he was at home, now he was the one who knew. He spent a few minutes with us there on the busy sidewalk, pointing in every direction and telling us what was to be found along each way. It was comforting to have a sense of place in that great storm of a city. I still think about that man from time to time. I think about how kind he was. I hope somewhere someone is being nice to him. I hope he felt good afterwards, and that he knew he was helpful.