The Trainyard

I’m waiting for my train.

I sit on the platform, looking into the newspaper. January, seventh,2009. Waiting in a small city just outside of New York. I’ll be headed there for business soon. I just need this train to get here. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever. I glance at my watch. Still 20 minutes until it gets here. I stand, deciding I should get some breakfast. Looking around for a cart, I see nothing. Of course I wouldn’t, it’s three in the morning. No one’s even up except the red-eye shift guys. I look at my watch again. I spent five minutes looking before returning to my seat to read the paper again. January, seventh, 2009. There was a side article about a horrible wreck. Apparently one of the passengers died, a middle-aged woman, but everyone else was out without a scratch. I sighed. It’s a shame the woman was lost, but no one else was hurt.

I looked at my watch again. In about three minutes, my train would be there. Hopefully they’d have a food car even if it just meant some M&Ms. I got my things in order and sat there, waiting. Waiting. Waiting. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, I looked again at my watch. Two minutes late. These things happen. Waiting. Waiting. Five minutes. Five turns to ten turns to 20 turns to sunrise. No train had arrived. Not even more people had arrived. I get up to find someone who could tell me what’s going on. No one. Soon, I found my way back to my seat. All my stuff was stolen. I thought I heard a sound, and turned. No one was there. Of course no one would be there. Even wind didn’t want to seem to come here.

Get it?

Those words crossed my mind, as if coming from the shadows on the wall I had been looking at. Finally, I understood why the train was taking so long to arrive.

I’m waiting for my train.