***
At the next station, three transit officers were waiting on the platform.
The elderly woman pointed him out with her cane.
My breath came in shaky gulps.
“That one,” she said. “Navy coat.”
The woman with the phone stepped forward.
“I have it all on video.”
He tried to change the subject.
“It was a seating thing,” he said quickly. “They set me up. It was a prank.”
“That one,”
“He grabbed me,” I said. My voice wobbled but didn’t break. “And he wouldn’t let me leave.”
The officers glanced at each other and took him by the elbow.
He went, grumbling, down the platform and out of view.
Then it was quiet, and I tried to slide my phone into my bag. The zipper wouldn’t cooperate.
My hand was trembling so badly the phone clattered against the metal.
“He grabbed me,”
I tried again.
And again.
A soft, wrinkled hand reached out and steadied the bag.
