The Fight

I had an appointment this morning at a very nice building. It's a building where people wear suits and carry laptop bags and look super important. I'm sure I looked out of place, but there I was a little before 8:30, walking up to the front doors. As I crossed the front plaza, this woman was walking about 20 yards in front of me, wearing a suit and carrying a lap top bag. I didn't really pay attention to her because I was looking at the woman standing just inside the front doors, wearing a tattered sweatshirt, jeans and a messy hairdo. She didn't look like she belonged either. She looked like she was lying in wait.

Sure enough, just as the woman in the suit was approaching the glass doors, Jeans Lady BURST out, got right in her face and started screaming at her. I was still a ways behind them, so I could only make out a couple F-YOU's and a HOW DARE YOU?! Suit Lady didn't seem phased at all and gave it right back. Then as I got closer, Jeans Lady started wailing on Suit Lady. She slapped and punched her in the face. Suit Lady did NOTHING! She didn't try to run away or block the punches. I was thinking; well, either you know you did something to deserve that or you're too scared to punch her back, but either way...GET OUT OF THERE! But she didn't.

Jeans Lady started walking away and stupid Suit Lady followed her. So Jeans Lady turned right back around and started wailing on Suit Lady again. By this time, I was about 10 feet away from them, just standing there...staring. I didn't know what to do. I contemplated jumping in and trying to help, but that wasn't really realistic and I didn't want to get my nose broken. I guess I figured I could make Jeans Lady stop if she knew there was someone there watching her. Or at least, she wouldn't murder Suit Lady if there was a witness. Both ladies turned and looked at me and the freaky thing was...Suit Lady was actually smiling! I didn't know if she was embarrassed or actually found humor in her situation, so I asked her; "do you need help?" She asked me to call security, so I went in to the lobby. WHAT SECURITY?? There are 3 elevators and a sofa. There's no security guard. Not even a reception desk or a white courtesy phone. There's an office, but I can see through the window that it's vacant. WHAT SECURITY? There's no one around. It's just me and these two crazies outside!! Do I call the police? WHAT DO I DO??

I turned around and started to go back outside. Jeans Lady was gone and Suit Lady was on the phone. I was about to go out and ask her if she was ok, but considering her creepy smile during the incident, I thought better of it. Since she was calling someone, I figured she was getting her own help. Plus, I've seen enough CNN to know that if Jeans Lady was a disgruntled co-worker, she might be on her way back with a fully loaded rifle and I probably shouldn't just stand there alone in the lobby. So I didn't. I got in the elevator and went up to my appointment.

I didn't see any cops or big blood stains when I came back down, so I figured everything turned out ok. But it was definitely one of the weirdest and most unexpected things I've ever seen and it made me question my reaction. It made me think of that 20/20 segment (or whatever show it is) called "What Would You Do?" They set up crazy scenes and see how unsuspecting witnesses act. So in this situation...did I do the right thing? I didn't really do anything. Could I have? Was I a bad unsuspecting witness?