I’ve lived in NYC for 6 years and walked the streets of Manhattan at all times of day and night. This evening, on my way back from dance class, I came the closest to having to physically run away from someone.

As I walked along 46th street between 8th and 9th I could vaguely hear a male and female voice talking behind me. Suddenly the words “Luke Skywalker” sent my mind into fight-or-flight mode. I quickened my pace and started humming to fill my ears with my own voice. For about 10s I sensed their conversation fade into the background. Phew!—I just pulled out of spoiler range.

“I feel like—” oh shit, their voices were being carried by the wind and cogent syllables were reaching my ears again! I started humming really audibly and looked back a bit frantically trying to pinpoint the exact location of the offending couple. But I couldn’t really see anything in the gloom and this turning around business was slowing my gait. Meanwhile I began feeling paranoid that other pedestrians around me were wondering why I was humming like a schizophrenic homeless person (sadly there are many of those on the streets of NYC). The man’s voice seemed to grow louder; I could sense from his earnest tone and questioning phrasing—”Well it seems that…” “The thing is…”—that he was homing in on some THEORY about what happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. And I started to feel a sense of rising panic.

How is it that they’re keeping pace with me? Oh, I’m holding groceries while drinking from a large cup of bubble tea. Moving faster’s gonna have me spilling stuff on myself. I realized that my only option was to cross the street, move AWAY from the direction they were headed in. I started striding toward the side of the road and hum even louder as I slowed my pace to wait for two cars to pass by. At that point, the man’s voice was consistently clear—if I stopped humming, it would be game over. Finally the street cleared and I briskly marched across it. I looked back across at the other side and saw the couple walking slightly ahead of me now. I tentatively lowered my humming, pricking up my ears to see if I could still catch his voice. It rang a little in the air but the syllables were no longer discernible.

I paused, drew breath and sighed. It looks like the race is on between the movie and I. Let’s see who catches who first.