From PRX, this is the Moth Radio Hour.

I'm Meg Bowles, and in this hour, we'll hear four stories told live on stage at

Moth events around the U.S.

True stories, told without notes, about real, sometimes surprising events.

If 2020 taught us anything, it's that life as we know it can change on a dime.

The stories in this hour all deal with moments that caught people off guard.

Some moments are a test of will, while others can throw a person's life completely off course.

Our first storyteller is Aaron Peng.

He shared his story at a mainstage presented by WGBH in Boston.

From the Wilbur Theater, here's Aaron Pang live at the moth.

So I'm commuting home from work, and when I walk into Bart, San Francisco's subway system,

I am instantly annoyed because I walk with a cane and I wear leg braces and I notice that

the elevators and escalators are out of service which means that after sitting on

my butt in my office for eight hours I have to start off my commute by walking

down three flights of stairs down to the platform.

And there's nothing I can do. That's the only option.

So I walk up to the mouth of the stairwell, and I take a deep breath,

and I pull my hands on the inevitably sticky handrail,

and I begin my descent.

Whenever I'm walking downstairs, I have to stay relatively focused. I have to stay focused, and so I don't notice immediately. But about seven or eight steps down, I realize

that nobody is passing me, even though it's peak commute hours. And there's so many people

in the station, and the stairwell is actually wide enough for two people to walk

...