STORYTELLING|WRITER’S CHALLENGE

The Weirdest Thing Happened To Me On The Train

Was it real, a dream, or am I seeing dead people? Globetrotters’ October Monthly Challenge

The other day I was on a train from London to Brighton when a man sat across from me and quickly proceeded to fall asleep with his head lolling forward.

It made me aware of my own tiredness which was exacerbated by the steady, rocking movement of the train.

I thought that he might be from India or the Middle East by his facial features, skin color and style of dress.

My mind became engrossed with thoughts about cultural differences, eastern cultures versus western, as well as simply American versus British culture.

I stared out the window thinking about what it’d be like to live in various countries, while zoning out to music.

My phone started ringing and vibrating, which jarred me out of my dream state. At some point, I had laid my head against the window and fell asleep.

Usually, my phone is on silent, but my sister started having contractions early that morning and I did not want to miss any calls or texts from her.

It was her first baby and it was agonizing for me to not be with her throughout her pregnancy, and now, her labor.

I asked her to record as much as possible on video. I wanted to edit the footage for her to have as a keepsake. She agreed. I encouraged her to text or call anytime for support. Soon enough, I will be with her in New York.

However, I was anxious to do a video call with her to see how she was doing. She tended to say few words to most people, including me, but her face would tell me everything I needed to know.

The call was from her boyfriend who is a sweetheart. He wanted to update me on her progress. The doctors said that it would be at least a few more hours until she was ready to be moved to the delivery room.

My sister was firmly against having an epidural injection, but it seemed as though her boyfriend was suffering more than she was from the pain of seeing her have contractions.

I thanked him for calling and told him to walk around the hospital to help calm his anxiety, but not to leave my sister alone too long.

How I longed to be in that room with her.

She went into labor 4 weeks earlier than expected and the cost to change my flight was sky high due to the holidays. At least I will get to hold the little pumpkin in just a couple of weeks.

The man across from me was staring at me and I apologized for talking a bit loudly on the phone. Normally, I am not that passenger who has conversations on the train for all to hear.

I felt bad about this and my thoughts were all over the place which gave me diarrhea of the mouth, as I explained to this perfect stranger this imperfect moment of my life.

The guy really surprised me by talking to me at length about something very personal.

I learned that he was younger than I first thought. He had a thick British accent and I found myself wondering if he was born in the U.K., but I didn’t ask. I just listened.

It is rare that guys, especially ones I don’t know, to start talking to me about such personal things.

Being on a quiet train made it seem even more unusual, but I noticed that the carriage was fairly empty. We were not disturbing anyone around us and our conversation took my mind off of my anxiety and longing to be with my sister.

Apparently, arranged marriages still happen in some parts of India and this guy was supposed to marry a distant cousin to help unite a large amount of wealth that his family had accrued over generations.

He felt bound by his loyalty to his family and culture which he loved and respected, but their expectation of him to marry a woman whom he knew little to nothing about became more and more difficult as he grew older.

The wedding was supposed to happen after he finished university, but he met a young woman at his university who derailed everything. She was Indian, studying to be a lawyer like he was. They began studying together.

He could tell that she was interested in him romantically and their feelings grew stronger. He originally told her that they could never be together because of his arranged marriage and dedication to his family.

However, over time he became willing to be ostracized from his entire community, never to return home, in order to be with her, but she did not want to give up all of that up for herself nor her future children.

The family was extremely important to her and her family clashed with him over religious differences as well.

After a year and a half without any word from her, this woman finally contacted him again to tell him that she had had a baby girl, his baby, which created quite an uproar in her family.

She eventually saved up enough money and summoned the courage to leave her family and begin a new life with this guy.

He told me that it was the happiest day of his life when he received that phone call from her.

He regretted that he missed the birth of his first child, but smiled broadly as he shared that another was soon on the way. They have been very happily married for a little more than a year now.

He told me that it was the phone call and my demeanor that made him share so much with me. He could sense my nervousness.

I had not one piece of nail left to bite and could not stop shaking my foot the entire time we talked. I took a deep breath and tried to relax my nerves when he smiled at me again and took a deep breath himself. My foot stopped shaking.

I smiled back at him and thanked him for reminding me that I might get the chance to be in the delivery room with my sister for her next baby and that everything will be okay.

I did not tell him that I was most thankful for the reminder that my life and those of my loved ones could be much more complicated and difficult due to cultural or religious influences as well as social infrastructures.

It was a welcome shift in attitude at a time when I needed it most.

I told the guy that I wanted to sleep a little more and asked him to please wake me up when we got to the stop before Brighton, if I was still asleep. He said, “Certainly, no problem. Get some rest.” I put my earbuds back in and took a much more peaceful nap.

I woke up a few minutes before the train arrived in Brighton and was a bit confused. Brighton was the last stop so I was not afraid of missing it, but I wanted to wake up the stop before to get my bearings and the guy told me he was going to Brighton as well.

At least I THOUGHT that he said he was going to Brighton.

Did he get off the train sooner?

Did he move to a different carriage??

Did I dream the whole thing???

I did not see him when I got off the train or ever again.

It was all quite bewildering.

Was this guy real or was he a figment of my imagination?

I wonder if I will ever really know…

For more information about this challenge:

Two more of my recent stories that were published in Globetrotters: