A Tale of Two Timelines
Nigel Fox and the Philipsburg Pennsylvania Train Crash
The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times
In all the many interventions, that I had accomplished since I realised I had my special abilities, I had not attempted to stop any event that I could see in the future. When I realised I could enter into other people's dreams and motivate them to do certain things, it opened a whole new arena of intervention. My first attempt at such an intervention would be in the train wreck in Phillipsburg.
As Nigel was driving to Philipsburg, I had no confirmation that he would succeed, nor could I have seen what the full outcome might be. It never occurred to me that it would create two timelines. But now in retrospect, I understand that it couldn’t have been any other way.
Timeline №1
On December 27, 1999, After he had diverted the freight train onto a siding, Nigel Fox stood on a small hill overlooking the railroad crossing and watched as the passenger train went through the crossing and then onto the trestle moving without incident. He had been successful in stopping the train wreck which had haunted his dreams for 15 consecutive nights.
Even though there was no reason to remain at the site, he felt compelled to stay for another 15 minutes, just staring down toward the tracks in both directions. He could see the derailed freight train from his vantage point and the first police car with its lights flashing arriving at the site. He knew had to leave but something inside him held him as though he had a reason to remain at the site. He was joyful that he had been successful in stopping the train wreck. Afterward, he made his way down the opposite side of the berm. His BMW was parked at the bottom of the small hill. He climbed into the car, started the engine, and left the scene as quickly as he could. Near the railroad crossing, Frank Glen had just arrived at the site in his rental car.
His drive from Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania to New York took four hours and 35 minutes on Highway 80. He kept thinking about what he would tell Elizabeth once he returned home. He believed she was mistaken in her judgment in what he saw as an unquestionable errand of mercy.
He kept telling himself, “I can’t believe I did it. I saved all of them (Of course not realising he had also saved his son.) This had to be a dream.” It didn’t feel like dreaming. It didn’t feel like anything he could remember feeling over the 80 long years of his life.
He felt like his mind was on fire, driving close to 60 miles an hour, only slowing when he saw a state trooper parked on the side of the road. He was reminded of when he had his television business when used to take road trips, one as far as Cleveland where he opened a Max’s appliance store. He didn’t even know at that moment who owned what had been his 30 appliance stores scattered across five states. But this was what Elizabeth wanted and he sold the stores so they could have the time and resources for the charitable work she so wanted and needed to fulfill her life.
Everyone could see that a gentle and compassionate spirit motivated every aspect of her generosity. No one doubted, even her enemies, of the sincerity of her commitment to her principles.
As Nigel drove, he kept thinking about his missing son, wondering what kind of life his son was living, albeit somewhere else. He didn’t know why he felt so nervous. He was certain at that moment that no one would ever know what he had done, and who would have believed that it was even possible anyway? He didn’t know why he felt so nervous. He wondered at that moment since this dream had been vindicated, should he begin paying attention to all of his dreams. He knew he didn’t understand the source of his premonition. So many questions, too few answers, at the centre of it all he sensed there was a schoolmaster, someone else who had facilitated it all. But he believed he would never find out who this might be.
Even though he thought that should be feeling exhausted from so much driving, instead he felt vivified as though he had stepped into a high-energy field and it pulsated through him. He wondered what Leonard would have thought about what he did if Leonard was still alive. Even after so many years, he still missed his friend and was still disturbed that he had never discovered who in fact had murdered him.
‘It’s odd the way memory works,’ he kept thinking. ‘One moment I am here in the car and the next time in Bayside once more. I can see my whole life behind me, pulling me back to an earlier sensation, is that my senses are stuck in a do-over loop.’ “I need to be bolder,” he told himself. But then he laughed and said the moment, “I am 81 years old.”
It was 6 o’clock in the evening very funny Roger’s house and to his surprise Elizabeth was waiting for him on the driveway sitting on a chair. He pulled the BMW up beside her and opened the window.
“What are you doing outside sitting like this?” he asked her.
“I’ve been praying for you, Neilos, most of the day.”
“Praying from what? I had no choice, Elizabeth, I could do it and I did, and it appears I saved all those people’s lives. You could say it was from the devil and I just don’t believe that. It seems to me if there is something a person can do to help rescue someone, a person should do it.” He paused. “The will of God should be to help everyone we’re capable of helping.”
“Yes, but some visions are from God and others are from the Demons.”
“How many years have you been having the same discussion? For every good and perfect gift comes down from above, Thee, the father of lights, in whom there is no variability. Is that not what we pray at the end of every liturgy?”
“Of course, Neilos,” she responded.
“Of all the gifts that come down from above is not life the greatest of all? I went today to Phillipsburg and I gave those people on that train life. Whatever had happened before was determined to give them death. I thank God that I was able to be there for them. Of course, I am certain, that no one will ever know what happened today. Thank God for that. I am exhausted from the drive.”
“I pray that God shows his mercy and all of us,” Elizabeth said and crossed herself.
But there were things set in motion that neither of them or anyone else could have possibly predicted.
Timeline №2
Nigel Fox stood on the small hill near the crossing in Philipsburg, Thinking that he had success with the better the freight train to another track. He stood watching waiting for the USAtrain to arrive when to his unimaginable surprise, the freight train did not go into the siding, but instead struck the passenger train, just like in his dreams, and the train was consumed by a ball of fire. Frank Glen would arrive at the site minutes after the crash, desperately trying to pull passengers out of a burning rail car. He saw the burnt bodies of multiple passengers tossed from the train, which the explosion had caused, and among those at least 4 maybe five survivors.
Nigel stood there watching all of it, realising with the force of an explosion that he had failed. He was certain that he had successfully turned the siding to divert the freight train, but something else had happened and he had no explanation to satisfy himself.
He did not know what to do next. He had planned everything meticulously. He had convinced himself that’s what the dreams were about. He never considered that it could be about something else, about something more subtle and extraordinary, something that he could never have deduced or extrapolated on his own. He stood motionless and overwhelmed by the destruction and disorder that surrounded him in all directions.
“Why didn’t this work? Why give me this vision if there is nothing I could do about it?” He shouted to himself. He could sense in his gut that there wouldn’t be answers, at least not right away. This would be a conundrum that could take months to unravel.
Nigel left the hill to go to his car, when, to his surprise, another man with burned clothing, apparently one of the passengers was standing next to his car.
“Please take me out of here, I don’t care where you take me. Just take me out of here!”
“Who are you?” Nigel asked him.
“My name is Reggie Ruggiero,” he responded. “I was a goddam passenger on that train.”
“Okay,” Nigel told him. “I think you should stay here for the ambulances.”
“I’m Okay. I am not staying for any ambulances. Please take me out of here!”
“Okay,” Nigel agreed. He opened the door and Reggie climbed inside the BMW.
By the time the first police officers had arrived Nigel and Reggie had left the scene. It was for this reason, that it would take several weeks before anyone realised that nine people, not just eight, had survived the burning train.
“I can’t believe what I just experienced,” Reggie, as he climbed into Nigel’s car. “How long do you think it’s going to take to get to New York.”
“Perhaps I should take you to the hospital,” Nigel told him.
“I don’t want to go to the hospital. I’m okay. Are you going to New York?”
“I live in Bayside,” Nigel answered.
“I live in Middle Village,” Reggie answered
“Are you drag back to bayside now?”
“Yes.”
Nigel began to pull away toward Highway 80 to New York. It was a surreal moment as these two strangers stared at each other. Nigel lust wanted to get home as soon as possible. He did not know why he agreed to take Reggie Ruggiero with him. With the heavy traffic, the trip to New York took over five hours. Neither of them seemed willing to say much to each other as Nigel drove eastward to New York.
At one point, Reggie blurted out, ”Did you see that? Did you see what happened to those people? They were burnt alive. I can’t believe what I saw with my eyes.”
“I still think you should stay there. They may call your family to the site.”
“I have no family who will come to see me. I want to get out of there and you seemed to be there just waiting for me.”
“I wasn’t waiting for you.”
“I’m gonna get home. Just get me back to my home. I feel manic right now.”
Nigel didn’t know how to respond as he was driving home. He found himself thinking about months before the war, He didn't know how what he was witnessing in Phillipsburg would evoke memories of so many years ago. He speculated it was because he and Leonard had met on a train. He couldn’t push the memories from his mind.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to forget what I saw today,” Reggie kept repeating.
