Lurker to the right

I got to the BART station and stood in my usual line. Right away I spotted her -- a lurker to the right. She was standing a good 2 feet away from my line and when the next train came and went, she actually moved up -- as if she was in line herself -- but stayed her 2 feet away.

As more people came to check out the line situation, the more worried I became that someone would actually stand behind the lurker lady and create a third line full of lurkers who don't understand the concept of a line and lining up and following BART protocol.

But luckily this didn't happen.

Instead, the lurker lady remained in her invisible line, and she actually turned around a few times to look at all of us. From what I could tell, BART wasn't a new experience to her; she didn't have that look of confusion or self-righteousness that many other lurkers have. She bravely had her bag sitting on the platform for any loony to grab and run off with -- this was my only indication that maybe she was just visiting because if you take BART everyday, you know to hold onto your bags and packages. Every man for himself.

Since lurker season has begun, I've gotten a bit more brazen with my line maneuvering, and I tend to close off the lurkers to the right by moving to the right and moving up if the train at the platform is not my train. This confuses lurkers because since they don't know line etiquette; they don't realize that I'm trying to get out of the way of the people who are in line and who want to get on the train. It's called order. So they usually try to get onto the train by getting around me, which causes a big line mess and dirty looks thrown in their direction. One of these days the line people will revolt against a lurker and it will not be pretty.

I, of course, stand where I am, oblivious to them and their lurker situation because if you're not in line, you're not important to me.

So I was watching the lurker lady to see what she would do, and since I didn't know which train she was going to get on, I was getting myself pumped up for a fight. I was holding a big storage box too -- even better. Since she wasn't imporant to me, I would just have to bash her with my box! Oh, the plans I had.... But it turned out she got on the train before mine. She had the nerve to follow the motion of the line and then slip in between the first and second person.

And what was even more interesting was that based on what was going on with the line when I first got in it, she would have been the second person if she was in line to begin with. So why bother? What's wrong with you lurkers????