Lisa was running late．Lisa，25，had a lot to do at work，plus visitors on the way：her parents
were coming in for Thanksgiving from her hometown．But as she hurried down the subway stairs，
she started to feel uncomfortably warln．By the time she got to the platform，Lisa felt weak and
tired--maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to give blood the night before，she thought．She rested
herself against a post close to the tracks．
Several yards away，Frank，43，and his girlfriend，Jennifer，found a spot close to where the
front of the train would stop．They were deep in discussion about a house they were thinking of
buying．
But when he heard the scream，followed by someone yelling，“Oh，my God，she fell in!”
Frank didn’t hesitate．He jumped down to the tracks and ran some 40 feet toward the body lying on
the rails．“No!Not you!”his girlfriend screamed after him．
She was right to be alarmed．By the time Frank reached Lisa，he could feel the tracks shaking
and see the light coming．The train was about 20 seconds from the station．
It was hard to lift her．She was just out．But he managed to raise her the four feet to the
platform so that bystanders could hold her by the grins and drag her away from the edge．That was
where Lisa briefly regained consciousness，felt herself being pulled along the ground，and saw
someone else holding her purse．
Lisa thought she’d been robbed．A woman held her hand and a man gave his shirt to help stop
the blood pouring from her head．And she tried to talk but she couldn’t，and that was when she
realized how much pain she was in．
Police and fire officials soon arrived，and Frank told the story to an officer．Jennifer said her
boyfriend was calm on their 40一minute train ride downtown---just as he had been seconds after the
rescue，which made her think about her reaction at the time．“I saw the train coming and 1 was
thinking he was going to die，”she explained．
We once had a poster competition in our fifth grade art class．
“You could win prizes，’’our teacher told US as she wrote the poster information on the
blackboard．She passed out sheets of construction paper while continuing，“The first prize is ten
dollars．You just have to make sure that the words on the blackboard appear somewhere on your
poster．”
We studied the board critically．Some of US looked with one eye and held up certain colors
against the blackboard，rocking the sheets to the fight or left while we conjured up our
designs．Others twisted their hair around their fingers or chewed their erasers while deep in
thought．We had plans for that ten—dollar grand prize，each and every one of US．I'm going to spend
mine On candies，one hopeful would announce，while another practiced looking serious，wise and
rich．
Everyone in the class made a poster．Some of us used parts of those fancy paper napkins，
while others used nothing but colored construction paper．Some of US used big designs，and some of
us preferred to gather our art tidily down in one comer of our poster and let the space draw the
viewer's attention to it．Some of US would wander past the good students’desks and then retum to
our own projects with a growing sense of hopelessness．It was yet another grown。up trick of the soil
they seemed especially fond of。making all of US believe we had a fair chance，and then always—
always--rewarding the same old winners．
I believe I drew a sailboat，but I can’t say that with any certainty．I made it．I admired it．I
determined it to be the very best of all of the posters I had seen，and then I turned it in．
Minutes passed．
No one came along to give me the grand prize，and then someone distracted me，and I
probably never would have thought about that poster again．
I was still sitting at my desk，thinking，What poster?when the teacher gave me an envelope
with a ten—dollar bill in it and everyone in the class applauded for me．