A  hot, rainy evening in NYC.  The sub­way plat­form was crowded with peo­ple try­ing to get home from work, which meant that the next train would be packed and steamy. When it pulled in, I was able to go with the on-rush and get inside the car. A man jumped up late to get off, and I was near enough to take the seat–a small mir­a­cle on a rush-hour train.  The young man beside me said, “I saved this seat for you.” I thanked him, smiled at his young daugh­ter on the other side of him, and leaned back grate­fully.  He was work­ing on his lap­top on what looked like a script.  I asked about it and soon we were shar­ing info on being writ­ers, he a film­maker with sev­eral films to his credit, another due on DVD in August, I with my mem­oir newly out.  He wrote down the name of my book and said he intended to buy it; I would buy his film in August, I promised. “And I can make your book into a film,” he said.  “Won’t it be fun on the red car­pet to say we met on the sub­way?” We both laughed.

His name is Noel Cal­loway. I watched the trailer of his new film, “Life, Love, Soul,” on You Tube, as well as an inter­view with him.  The man has tal­ent.  Ok, so maybe it will be just one of the hun­dreds of pleas­ant encoun­ters you can have with strangers in New York City.  But he’s ordered my book, he tells me, and said that from the descrip­tion of it, he thinks it would make a great film. But a pleas­ant, chance encounter with a tal­ented young film­maker on his way up? That’s enough of a gift.  You gotta love New York.

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