Jeshua Nunez

Dr. Cleanace

LLN Draft-1

 

Direcciones

 

The smell is average, I’m used to it by now. It’s pretty late, a bit after 4:00pm and I’m in 34^th street train station waiting for my D train to arrive. I’m on my phone, listening to some music, an average school day. I groaned in agitation noticing my train is delayed and I must wait even longer. As i continued to use my phone standing still, I felt a light tuggle on my shoulder.

I turned confused and saw short, tannish skin like mine, clenching her glasses and phone in one hand.  She spoke very low and avoided much eye contact, mumbling her words to me. I had to ask for her to clarify as even I struggled to understand her low mumbled English. The few distinct words I’m able to take were “help”, “I’m lost”.  Her figure and vibe reminded me of my grandma. I felt a sense of compassion and worry for this lady. I wouldn’t want my grandma to be lost and confused in the middle of the train station. The lady who still seems helpless and lost, began showing me her phone’s google maps, speaking louder and a bit more clearly in English. As trains move past me and her from the other sections of the station, and I hear footsteps, she continues explaining her situation.

“Huh”, “What do mean?” I kept asking, feeling bad on her English. However, during one of her attempts to ask for directions, I heard her speak slight Spanglish, a mix of Spanish and English. This instantly reconnected me with my grandma as she also speaks a mix of English and Spanish, primarily Spanish. Out of compassion and a subtle bit of relief, I say back “nececitas ayuda?”. The lady grins as she puts her hand on my arm this time, slightly squeezing it. Soon after this lady showers me with Spanish, fluent and pure Spanish to me. I responded back, not as fluent but enough to have a proper conversation with her. As we spoke, I learned the true problem she’s facing. She is lost but needs to meet with her husband on 125^th Street. I happily helped her truly by telling her to wait here with me until the D train arrives, then wait until she reaches 125^th. She happily nodded and thanked me.

At this moment, i felt a strong warm glow from her smile and thanks. The way she said thank you really hit hard for me because of how exactly my grandma also gives thanks. Afterwards, the train arrives, and me and the Spanish lady talked about school, and she gave me advice, before being dropped at in 125^th. The whole train ride back home I thought of how she said “muchas gracias, bendiciones” and how much my grandma is like multiple other Spanish-speaking mothers. If it wasn’t for me, no one would’ve helped her get back with her husband, and how much of a tool and importance my Spanish was for her situation. I rushed back home telling my grandma the whole story, and her final response to me was “we need more like you”.