Public transportation in New York is very convenient. Most buses and subways operate twenty-four hours a day, and the lines extend in all directions!

About ten years ago, my husband and I were renting a place in Flushing, Queens. I commuted to Midtown Manhattan. My husband worked in the Bronx. Although there was a subway, the journey was long. He usually went home the night before his day off. Taking the subway from the Bronx back to Flushing, you have to transfer in Manhattan. One time, we decided to meet up in Manhattan and go home together.

My husband planned the subway lines we needed to take. Take the 4 train first. He took the train from the Bronx and I took the train from Fifty-First Street. We decided to both sit in the first car of the 4 train so we could meet each other at the Fifty-Ninth Street station. Then we’d transfer to the N train back to Flushing.

We hadn’t seen each other for a week, and we missed each other so much! I finally got a call from my husband saying he was off work and was going to take the train. He was also worried that it would not be safe for me to be alone at the train station, so I should go to the train in twenty minutes.

I got in the first car of the 4 train and arrived at the Fifty-Ninth Street station as scheduled. But I didn’t see my husband! I sat on the station bench and waited for him. Every time a train passed in front of me, I looked around trying to find him. Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes passed and I got nothing! I started to get anxious. Why hasn’t my husband arrived yet? What happened to him? I tried to call him, but ten years ago there was no network signal in the subway station, so I couldn’t reach him. What should I do? I wanted to leave the subway station and call him from outside. I worried that if he didn’t see me when he arrived, he’d be worried too! Another twenty minutes passed in this tangle, and he still didn’t show up! I couldn’t wait any longer. I went out and called him! His phone number indicated that he was out of the service area. I was scared and panicked. What happened? Why didn’t he show up as promised? Why can’t I contact him? Where is he? I forced myself to be calm. What should I do? His phone number could not be reached, indicating that he could still be on the train. I consoled myself by thinking that the train might be delayed; I would go into the subway station again and wait! 

Another half hour passed, and I still hadn’t seen him. I got out of the subway station again and tried to call him. The phone number still said no service. This time I was going to message him and ask him where he was. Before I finished typing, I got his message. Thank goodness!

 His messages popped up one by one.

“Dear, where are you?”

“I didn’t see you at the front of the 4 train.”

“Your phone says no service.”

“I went to your workplace, it was closed.”

“I went back to the Fifty-Ninth Street station and still didn’t see you. I am so worried about you!”

I hurried back to the subway station, but I didn’t see him. I came out to call him again, no service! Another message popped up; he told me that he was going to transfer to the 7 train and wait for me at the Court Square–Twenty-Third Street station, an open-air station, not underground. The phone will have service! I texted him back, “Wait for me there. I am coming now!”

Finally, on the 7 train at the Court Sq–Twenty-Third Street station, we found each other! When my husband saw me getting off the train, he ran over and hugged me tightly. I burst into tears in his arms! We held hands and waited for the next 7 train at the station. Since it was past midnight, there were few trains, but we had each other, so I was not afraid! We enjoyed the late night view of New York at the station together. It is the only one in this life!

 You’ll never guess why we missed each other on the 4 train at the Fifty-Ninth Street station . . . It was because the station has the uptown and downtown lines on different platforms. We were both in the first car, but were waiting for each other on different platforms!

Jing (Ivy) Sun is thirty-seven years old, and she is from Changchun, in Jilin, China. She has lived in New York since December of 2011. She writes, “I have been in New York for over ten years. My favorite place is the library! In the future, I want to open my own store, love life, and love myself!” At the Queens Public Library’s Elmhurst Adult Learning Center, her teacher is James McMenamin, and Michelle Johnston is the center’s manager.