Dear Diary:
L’esprit d’escalier is a term I learned from a friend. It is French and describes the experience of coming up with a perfect comeback only after having left the situation where it might have been used.
My story is a rare if unlofty instance of finding and using a satisfying retort in real time.
I was recently on the A train going downtown with my 3-year-old son in my lap and my shoulder bag beside me. The train was crowded, as it was the morning rush, and a woman squeezed in beside me, sitting on my bag.
I didn’t mind, and had my son not been on my lap, my bag would have been. A little before our stop, I began trying to dislodge my bag, but she took no notice and we remained trapped.
As the doors opened at 59th Street, I saw that we would have to get up instantly to make it out before the doors closed, so I stood up, yanking my bag out from under her. As a result my bag swung backward toward her (but it didn’t touch her).
Suddenly alert and furious a this commotion, the woman asked angrily, “Why don’t you just hit me in the face with your bag†to which I replied, “I don’t have time,†and whisked my son and bag off the train in the nick of time. I enjoyed the memory all the way up the stairs.
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