tram dominoes

October 8, 2008

(I so wish there was a video to show the story of this blog.  I think it's something that maybe you just had to see...and something I wish I could have seen from an outsider's perspective.)

I had a problem transferring some of my filed from the old PC to the new MP ("My Precious"--the name for the new computer, which is not a PC), so I had taken both over to my friend's house for some help.  I had left a box of things there when I'd returned home from Marseille, so this evening, when I boarded the tram, I had two laptops, a purse, and a very heavy suitcase.  Since it was rush hour, it was standing room only on the tram.  I put my back against a wall and kept my balance that way.  Swimmer was with me, and she, like me, had her back against a pole instead of holding on to it.  Trams never go fast enough to ever lose your balance, so there wasn't much of a reason to hold on.

Or so we thought.

The tram driver suddenly SLAMMED on his brakes, and all 50-some people in the tram went flying forward.  In all my experience of public transport, I have never been aboard a bus/metro/train/tram/boat that slammed on its brakes like that.  I mean everyone went flying.  The people who were sitting didn't feel the affects like those of who were standing.

Well, Swimmer and I went flying the most.  Maybe it is because we weren't holding on.  Or maybe it is because we were so much taller than everyone else that the extra height sent us off balance more than others.  Or maybe it was some mean little devil was picking on us so that we would stand out more than we already did.

Or should I say, FALL OUT.

Because fall we did.  Flat on our faces.  And because we were pretty much thrown down from the gravity from the sudden stop, we were a force to be reckoned with.  We took everyone down with us.  The suitcase went down under me, and my arms went flapping around--not to catch something so I wouldn't hit the ground, but to My Precious to protect her.  And as I went down like a domino--my face was buffered by the backside of the little old lady in front of me, who, once I knew My Precious was safe, my hands went flapping back around to try and catch the little old lady so that I wouldn't take her down.  She somehow remained on her feet.

Her husband did not.  Swimmer got him.

Well, due to the suitcase underneath me and two laptop computers on top of my back, and my hands holding up the little old lady in front/above me, and the gazillion people just standing around me and Swimmer as if it were our faults that we fell, I couldn't get my feet on the ground or my hands onto anything to give myself leverage to get back up.  I was a pitiful sight.  I think maybe the people around me expected me to levitate or something to get myself out of that position.  I'm not sure really how I did end up getting off the ground.

I do know that everyone stared at us like we were idiots.  And we couldn't stop laughing once we did get up.  And that the little old lady YELLED AT ME when she got off the tram.  As if 

(a) it was my fault that we fell.

(b) I didn't try to stop her from falling as well.

(c) I could have stopped my face from hitting her backside as I was thrown through the air by gravity.

And I do know that I have some mighty fine bruises forming on my knees.  I do still wish that I could see on a video what it looked like when all 50-some people went flailing forward, and the two tallest girls on the tram took down a little old couple like a set of dominoes...