train stories

We went up by train to visit my sister in the Blue Mountains yesterday.

When I was buying my ticket, I showed my student card - which has a photo of me on it - and asked for a student concession. No, he said, you have to have a red validation spot on your student card - you can go over to such-and-such office and get it validated.

Of course, with less than five minutes to go before the train left, I had no time to do that so I bought a full fare ticket. I was irritated (what's the point of having a student card if they won't recognise it? and it would have saved me several dollars) but also intrigued that presumably student-card-fraud is so rife they've had to introduce a double-guarantee system.

Still, I don't imagine the fraudsters include many grey-haired middle aged women (i'm more likely to try and pretend to be a pensioner) - the photo on the card is clearly me, so to be denied a concession was somewhat exasperating.

On the way home at night [we stayed longer than intended and din't get on the train till 8pm), Olle and I sat in an empty carriage on the bottom level (they're double-decker trains). I was reading aloud to him from our current book (Swan Song by Colin Thiele). There was an odd little band of people - a 7 year old boy, two teenage girls and a man in his late 20s who was very bossy towards them all - hanging about, changing seats and creating a bit of commotion and I was glad when they got up and walked through to another carriage. A few stops later, a young couple got in and sat near us - I noticed that he was wearing a Bob Dylan t-shirt and I managed to peer across over his shoulder and work out that he was reading Joan Baez's autobiography. Anyway, not long afterwards, I noticed a young man lying on the ground in the middle level of the carriage, which we could see through to up the stairs at the end of our section. He was lying sideways with his head on the ground, staring down towards us.

At first I thought this guy was fooling around or had decided to have a sleep (there was hardly anyone around) so I didn't pay much attention. People behave strangely on trains at night, as I was discovering. Then another young man (perhaps even a teenager) came walking through and said to me and the Dylan/Baez couple, "he's been drinking mineral turpentine. Keep an eye on him, I'm going to find the guard". He said this in a  monotone and it was impossible to tell if the guy who had collapsed (for now it was apparent he had collapsed in an alcoholic stupor) was his best friend or a total stranger.

Unusually for me, I had my mobile phone on me (co-parent bought me a new one just two weeks ago, after I lost or misplaced the old one, which I rarely used), so I called the emergency number displayed on a poster at the end of the carriage. I got through to some kind of central command station, told them which train we were on and which direction we were going and they told me they'd alert the guards. Sure enough, at the next station, two guards came to examine the collapsed man. We (me and Olle and the young couple, who had exchanged a few words about this situation) stayed in our seats. I'm trained in health care, but I could tell from a distance that he was basically okay - not vomiting, still breathing, still moving and even occasionally talking, though his eyes were staring and glazed.

The man's friend (or was he a stranger?) came down and told us that they were calling an ambulance to meet the train at Emu Plains. So down the mountainside we proceeded, continuing to read while the guy continued to lie on the floor at our eye level. The little band of four then came trooping back, sat in the seats nearest to the lying-down man and stared at him.

At Emu Plains, there were indeed two ambulance men with a stretcher waiting. They came onto the train and spent several minutes examining the guy - he was able to get up into a seat with their help. I couldn't see how they managed to get him out of the train and onto the stretcher, but I was relieved to see him being wheeled off.

It was 10pm by the time we arrived at Central and even later when we got home. I could tell Olle was a little spooked by having been out so late in the big bad city.

Comments

[Jody]

That would be the sort of experience that would stay with me (if I'd been Ollie's age) and would show up in my dreams, at odd angles, for years to come.

But I love the idea of coming home in the dark on a train with my child. My dad and I took several train rides to Duluth when I was around Ollie's age, and they rank as some of the best memories of my life.

[suszoz]

Yesterday Olle went off to a drama workshop for the day (it's school holidays here). When I collected him at 4pm, we got into the car and his first words were: "That was scary last night". I don't know if it had been on his conscious mind all day or if it popped out after he'd had some time to digest it.

[elissa]

Was he interested in the drama of the situation from the 'potential danger to me' point of view, or from the 'that man might be really sick' point of view? I think my kids are two young to empathise with strangers but maybe a 9 year old can?

[suze]

Definitely 'potential danger to me' , but mixed with 'if he dies, that's scary and disturbing' - not exactly empathy but something approaching it.

[Valerie]

Wow, that does sound creepy.