We Think We Met a Man Who Thought He was Jesus

We rushed into the Subway and quickly found a spot to stand just as the train lurched forward.  Adam was about three feet away from me to my right, and three feet in front of me stood a stout gentleman wearing a Yankees jacket.  He looked at my camera, smiled at me, and said with an apparent Mexican accent,

“You a tourist?”

“No,” I replied.

“Aww, then you must be a professional photographer?”

“Ummm...that is my goal. I am still kind of learning though.”

 I looked at Adam to draw him into the conversation.

“Well, maybe it is your...,” he paused, “gift.”

I smiled, unsure of how to react to him at this point.  He crossed his arms and leaned against the door.  He went on to say,

“We all have a gift, you know.  Would you like to know what mine is?” 

I turned to Adam as if to hand over the awkward baton that I had been passed.

“Ah...sure...” Adam responded. 

Just as the man began to speak the train screeched, and an announcement crackled over the PA system.  I watched his well groomed goatee move around his words, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.  Finally, I caught on in the middle of his sentence.

“...the Way, the Truth and the Light.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

He paused, waiting for a response. Not sure what we just heard, he then went on to say, 

“Do you believe?”

Again, I look to Adam hoping that he heard more than what I heard.

“Yep, we are with you brother.”

Taking the cue from Adam I smiled and gave him a dorky thumbs up. 

“I knew it,” the little man said, “I know my people anywhere.  Because I know everything.”

Just then we came to our stop. We shook his hand as we started to exit the train and he said,

“I’ll be seeing you guys again one day.”

“Ok,” Adam replied.

We stepped off both holding back a smile.  We headed up the stairs then finally looked at each other unsure of what we just experienced.  

Adam started to chuckle, “Did he think he was Jesus?”  

I finally let out the laugh I was holding on to.

 “I...don’t...actually know? I think he might have...”