Quarters

I flew back to nyc this morning. I was at the JFK AirTran station this morning behind a distinguished-looking Old Brit. He got to the MTA machine to purchase AirTran + subway card. I told him it was $7 or $8. He thanked me and took out a bag of coins. He was going to pay in quarters. 🙈 I politely offered my $5 bill and two dollars in exchange for his quarters. “No, no, no. You are too kind.” He proceeded to put $8.75 in quarters into the machine while other passengers scattered to the adjacent lines. A plastic 'poker smile' was on my face as his shaky hand continued to fish quarters out of a Ziploc bag. I purchased my card with a debit charge that took about 10 secs, and made the incoming A train. The Brit guy plopped down next to me and started counting his quarters. The train rocked and a quarter fell out of his hand and did an epic roll under a few passengers. The Brit guy was up, searching for the errant quarter. The plastic smile returned to my face as he peeked under and through the leg of passengers. An older New Yorker handed him 25 cents...perhaps as reparations so that he would stop looking. The Brit was satisfied for a few minutes, but then started looking again. A Spanish-speaking woman handed him 50 cents. The Brit thanked her with a very Anglo-sounding ‘muchos gracias.’ He looked shocked at how nice we all were but most of us were like ‘stop with the fucking quarters! We will pay you to stop!!’ The Brit sat for the rest of the subway ride, basking in the warmth of our hospitality. I bet he’s in Manhattan by now with his bag of quarters.