The crazy story about the train

As you may or may not know, I went on a one day trip to New York City this week.

One of my best friends from High School was there on a girl's trip and I just couldn't stand the thought that she was so close and not go and see her.

so I just hopped on a train and crashed their party and saw her!

It was so fun!

We saw Ellis Island, which has been totally revamped since the last time I was there.

We went to Times Square and Rockafeller Center

We shopped

We ate great food

And talked and talked and talked

On Friday it was time for me to go home.

Jennifer walked me to Penn Station where we discovered that my train was delayed 50 minutes

apparently it had broken down

Here we are in Penn Station

I finally boarded my train for my 4+ hour trip.

My final destination is Boston which is the end of the line

and it's a pretty long trip

So I don't pay a lot of attention to what is going on around me

I read, I play Sudoku on my phone, I sleep

You know...pass the time

I do try to listen to what stop we are on so I have an idea of how close I am but I really don't pay a lot of attention

(which will become obvious in a minute)

So, we get to a stop and I'm playing on my phone 

I'm into it and not paying attention to the world around me at all

I notice a girl having trouble getting her luggage to fold up properly

and it takes her forever

I remember thinking that she better hurry up because the train never stops for long at each stop

After awhile this older woman who also just happens to be foreign comes up to me

and asks if I am "for South Station"

I say that I am

and she replies "oh, because there's no one left on the train"

I jump up and look around and sure enough, the train is 

completely empty!

I was so into my game that I didn't notice we had stopped (or for how long) or that the entire train emptied out around me.

She tells me that she took awhile to gather her things but that we can leave together.

I am super embarrassed but we walk up towards the exit together.

We get to the doors and they are shut.

I reach over to open them but they don't open

I push a few buttons

They are locked.

We are locked in an empty train.

The woman starts getting kind of freaked out

and says that she is so glad I am there because she's scared and doesn't know what to do.

Her English is not perfect so I think she's glad I'm there to talk to whoever we find

Oh I hope we find someone.

I tell her that we should just head toward the front of the train because certainly there are workers somewhere (!)

I get all the way to the dining car (the second car in the train) and open the doorway

Two workers are in there cleaning up or something and they literally jump when I open the door

and look at me quite startled.

"Can I help you?" one of them asks.

"Yes, we'd like to get off the train."

"uh. YEAH."

Then he says,"The conductor said the train was empty. We're about to leave."

I say, "Well there are two of us and we can't get out.  The doors are all locked."

He gets super nice and says, "Well, I'd be happy to help you get out."

He helps us to the door and helps the older lady with her luggage.

The two of us get off the train and look at each other 

and give each other a hug.

Yes, we are strangers but we both needed a hug right then.

We had been off the train for about...oh...ten seconds at that point.

We are in mid hug when the train LEAVES.

Yep, it takes off down the tracks the other direction.

The two of us just stared at each other and pretty much simultaneously said to each other

"We could have been on that train!"

Well, obviously no one ever checked to see if the train was empty.

But I am a serious dork for being so into a game of phone Sudoku that I don't notice my train has stopped!

And if it wasn't for that woman, I would DEFINITELY have been on that train.

I imagine I would have noticed when I started moving backwards...

So we laughed and walked together to the station.

We hugged again as we said goodbye.

And I can't get myself to play phone Sudoku for some reason.