I saw something really disturbing this last Friday that I thought I’d share with everyone. I was on my way up to a meeting at the southern border of Central Park and while my boss and I were on the subway up there, a woman with her two daughters entered. The older daughter gave a pathetic look at a gentleman who was about to sit down in a seat that had just become available and he reluctantly gave it to her instead. In the meantime, the mother stood in the doorway with her youngest daughter (about two years old) who was in a huge pink puffy jumpsuit and locked into her stroller. I looked down at this little girl and she back up at me. She was a sight to behold. My mother would have indeed called her “precious” as opposed to something more flattering, and I’m not sure I could agree with her. I don’t know exactly what it was about this little girl, but she was mesmerizing in a freak show kind of way. Not that she was ugly or anything, but she just had this look on her face that made you wonder about how much was really going on behind it and my guess was that it wasn’t much. It was something about her puffy big pink coat and her little face just staring up at me like I was supposed to do something to entertain her.
Her sister was eating some Doritos and my boss and I (along with most other people on the train) were staring at the little girl. The little girl then saw the Doritos her sister had and she began reaching out towards the bag. There was a lady in between the two sisters who was doing her best to be in her own world. The older daughter gave her little sister some Doritos which she immediately began to devour. Orange was everywhere, on her fingers, on her coat, on her face and when she dropped one, orange was on the floor. After finishing, she began reaching for the Dorito on the subway floor which landed at the woman’s feet. The whole time I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe this little girl is stuffing her face with these Doritos and her mother is encouraging it’. Since I don’t have kids of my own, I’m not the expert on healthy treats for children, but I don’t remember getting Doritos until I was a little older.
Maybe I was just a little grossed out by the whole thing. Luckily the mother stymied the little girls’ pursuit of the Dorito on the floor and she gave her some more of her sisters’ Doritos. Then came the kicker; the little girl stuffed the new handful of Doritos down and she immediately puked everything back up, all over the puffy pink coat and the floor. There she sat strapped into the stroller, orange vomit covering her and she just stared up at me like a small and chubby bird from her little stroller nest. This was definitely one of the strangest experiences I’ve had, like walking in on your best friends mom when she's changing, but I think it was an important one nonetheless. It took a little while for her mom to notice but she then cleaned up the whole mess with her scarf (except for the stuff on the floor). I don’t know what lesson I was supposed to take away from this, but for some reason) I really needed to share this experience with someone… somewhere.
