Nervous on the T

All those "If you see something, say something" announcements on the T yesterday started getting to Evan. And then the strange young man got on the trolley at Northeastern:

... (He) planted himself directly in front of me, facing me from what felt like 1&1/2 feet away (and trust me, there was plenty of room in there), and appeared to have labored breathing. He was feeling his chest wth his hand, apparently to check his heart rate, and at one point took out a yellow sucker, carefully unwrapped it, and ate the thing off the stick with one chomp. Was this guy having a diabetic episode, or maybe a panic attack? I think that would make anyone nervous on the train, but having this person face me on the train, along with the terror messages and the mental images of people exiting a subway covering their defaced heads with bloody towels made me want to get out of that trolley ASAP. ...