The Train That Eats Husbands

So, today the trains were running late. When I walked up to the station, the boards said all trains were delayed indefinitely, which is never a good sign. There was a train sitting at the station on the southbound tracks (which, coincidentally, is the opposite way that I wanted to go), and a few minutes after I arrived at the platform, it backed up about three inches on the tracks for no apparent reason. About fifteen minutes it backed up a little more. I was amused because it seemed a pointless effort, and my train buddies and I were joking that the conductors were entertaining themselves by seeing who could move the train the least amount, or squishing pennies on the tracks. About a half hour later, the train began backing up in earnest. A woman with two small children ran up the platform and began waving at the train. The conductor leaned out, and she yelled up that her husband was on the train and she wanted him to get off so that she could drive him to work. The conductor said something that we couldn't hear, and then continued backing up. The woman and her children remained on the platform. We assumed that the train was going to come back to the platform at some point, but instead it backed up, switched tracks, and headed south on the northbound track. It didn't stop back at the station. After watching the train go by, the woman headed back to her car with her children. No husband for you.

Incidentally, it would have been really funny if all the delays had been caused by trains running on the tracks in the wrong direction. But, unfortunately, not the case. It was amusing nonetheless, and at least made for an entertaining hour of delay.