Down the Up Escalator

When was the last time you have done something absolutely crazy in public just on the whim of a bet or a dare with a friend?

It happened to me about a month or so ago when I met up with Jean, a good friend of mine. We were meeting on a Friday night for a chat over dinner and wine. Jean and I go back, way back to high school, where we were often rated the "double-trouble" twins, just hot-wired for mischief. Our jobs and kids keep us busy now, but when we get together we quickly giggle ourselves back to our high school days.

On this particular evening we got, well, a little tipsy – a couple too many glasses of champagne and by the time we had left the restaurant, we were not actually drunk but definitely prone to fits of sentimental reminiscences and excessive giggling. We had to pass through a mall to get to the subway and the topic of whether we had become too "grown up" and normal being under discussion, Jean suddenly challenged me to a dare.

We went up to the second floor.

"You must walk DOWN the UP escalator!!" she finally challenged, laughing. Simple yet effective.

And without a thought that I was now a mature, conservatively dressed woman with a son of college-going age and a suitably responsible job, I did it! I still can’t believe I did it – in retrospect I can’t figure out if my predominant response is to cringe with embarrassment or to burst out laughing at the humor of it! Though it was pretty late, the mall was still quite crowded and there were so many people staring at me as I nimbly leapt from step to step trying to run faster and banging into stunned shoppers on the way.

By the time I got to the bottom I was almost panting and Jean was waiting for me, almost collapsing with hilarity. My son would have been amazed to see me and I still can’t forget the gaping, surprised faces of the shoppers!

"Lady, you should know better than to do this," admonished a security guard who walked up to us, but even he had a smile on his face.

Geez, it felt great to be transported back to my crazy teenage years for a while!