It was a perfectly ordinary afternoon on a perfectly ordinary sardine-style
peak-hour train. Rain spattered the windows, and the remains of sunset were
visible in the rapidly darkening sky. Joanne, my friend and colleague, stood
beside me chattering away in her usual fast-paced monologue of office gossip
and one-night-stands. She could be tiresome at times, and I had learned to
insert the appropriate "Uh-huh" noises while not actually listening to her
at all.