It hasn't happened in a long time, but yesterday I was stuck at a train crossing.
It's an occupational hazard, living in Bako. The city is boxed in and crossed by countless tracks and there are only a handful of over crossings to avoid delays. The only reason it hadn't happened in awhile is the fact that I'm such a shut-in and even when I do go out, I don't venture far.
At any rate, getting stopped at a crossing wouldn't be such a big deal if the trains were, you know... moving. Often they just roll across the intersection and stop. The first time it happened to me, I waited 40 minutes to finally get on my way. If you think you can just divert down a side street and skirt around the end of the train further down the track, think again. The trains are so long you'll be halfway to the coast before you find either end.
Even worse, and more frequent, are situations like yesterday, when the crossing arms come down and then there is... nothing. What happens is a train far down the line has rolled to a stop over the sensors that lower the gate. Maybe it's just waiting for another train to pass, maybe it's parked for good, you'll have plenty of time to ponder which. Usually after 20 or 30 minutes, the gates finally rise and it's almost as if you can hear the engineer saying "My Bad". Or not. I doubt they care.
By the time I rolled up on the intersection, there were already two or three blocks worth of cars waiting which meant that the gates had already been down for quite awhile and there wasn't a train for as far as the eye could see. I just resigned myself to the wait, since I had no other route to get home. Just then, I noticed the gate on our side of the road started to rise. It stopped at about half staff, at a 45 degree angle. Soon, the cars in front of me started to ever so slowly inch forward.
I assumed the gate had risen mechanically, but when I finally worked my way up to the tracks I saw that the gate was being held aloft by a strapping young buck, like Atlas. He'd pulled his truck over, and probably out of frustration, he had clamored out and was now hoisting the gate up to let traffic pass.
"How nice is that?" I thought as my car crawled onto the tracks. And stopped.
The light on the other side had turned red and traffic had stopped and I was now sitting directly on the train tracks.
It suddenly occurred to me that just because I had never seen a train barreling down the tracks at 80mph, it didn't mean that they didn't exist. You do occasionally hear about them on the news, when they derail. And they probably derail because idiots like me get tired of waiting and sneak around the gates, which had obviously come down for a reason. I was now a sitting duck.
With my luck I figured this was how it was going to end, killed in Bako.
By a train.
Poetic payback for writing this blog.
"Here Lies Eric, Killed By A Train.
Moved To Bako And Went Insane".
Actually, I was trying to take my mind off my impending doom by thinking of something better to rhyme with "train" when the light turned green and traffic moved forward and I was spared my ironic death.
So, at least yesterday, I dodged a bullet. I suppose I should be thankful, and I guess I am. It's always such a tough decision when you wake up each morning in this town.
