Train Ride
He was in his late 30’s…maybe early 40’s and the black ink art on his forearms added to his interesting image when he asked me with a strong cockney accent “How fah issit to Raw-chestah?”
“Rochester? Well I’m not exac…”
Before I could finish my sentence a pretty young woman in the seat in front of the tattooed interesting cockney accented dude cut into my air space with :
“6 hours…it’s a 6 hour train ride…I’m from Rochester.”
“Well thanks! Ummm, that fah huh? I just got offa playn from Lowndon and I missed the connection to Raw-chestah, and so I booked a train…some cabby mate offered to drive me there for $1500.00…”
She speaks over him,“Rochester is so boring.”
He finishes his sentence, “$1500.00, ha! Can you bah-lieve it it? Very funny bloke. So Raw-chestah is boring is it?” He takes a vacant seat next to the Barbie doll girl.
“Yah…nothing to do there. Why are you going there?”
“Oh…I ‘av employment there puttin’ up high tension wire towers. I’ll be there with blokes I dun really know, who like ta drink and hunt ha! I’m not into drinkin’ and combine that with firearms and…”
She interrupts “There’s a lot of great bars in Rochester…there’s a music school…I was doing a lot of modeling with my best friend…”
“Oh Yah? You look that sort you do…I can see that…”
“Oh…(giggle) thank you!”
“So yah…I’m afraid these blokes will jus wanna go out drinking and I’m over that. I need to find a gym to work out in or something so when these blokes go out to get drunk after work I’ll have a good excuse…”
She interrupts “There’s a great restaurant called LaScala on Park Street that has amazing mixed drinks and a fabulous wine list…”
Pause
“Oh good…I do love food. Not that I’m against drinking…I’ll ‘ave a glass a wine wid dinner now and then, but these days I’m tryin’ not to get wrapped up in…”
She talks at the same time, words overlapping until he stops mid sentence to hear her say “I was in the army. They discharged me because I have allergies. Asthma actually.”
“What are you doin’ now? Modeling again? Did you like the army?”
“Well yah…I’m just living back home for now…nannying near my parents house for some neighbors who have a toddler.”
“Ahh, the nanny thing…well good.”
I stop eavesdropping and go to the dinning car to get some tea.
10 minutes later I return to my seat and cannot help myself…In fact I lean in to hear better . I can audibly recognize the flirt in her voice “here’s an offering of friendship”
Trying to act like I’m looking at something else I peek through the space in the seats in front of me to see her handing him a travel sized screw top bottle of red wine.
She clearly wasn’t getting his message about the drinking thing.
“Well thank you so much! Let’s make a toast to friendship!”
I hear the soft crack of the screw top seals being broken, and get back to my book. I notice a figure standing beside me in the aisle so I look up and see a man standing there holding out a $20 bill. It was the guy who works in the dining car.
“I believe you dropped this miss on your way out of the café with your tea.”
“Yes!! Thank you so much! Let me give you $5 for your honesty!”
“Would you come back and tell my boss?”
“Certainly!”
I got up and followed him to the dining car hearing the cockney getting louder and more pronounced as I passed the couple who were obviously getting more relaxed by the minute.
“In England we don’t ‘av the death sentence as we know that violence begets violence…” She talks over him…they are speaking at the same time now like a constant cacophonous duet…words tumbling over each other’s statements, but now he doesn’t pause to let her make her points…he just happily and vigorously continues talking until he needs to take a breath.
I come back about 10 minutes later to take my seat again.
As I pass them I see several empty travel size screw top wine bottles on their trays…I figure they must be working on bottle number 5 each. …from the jolly volume possibly more!
The train stops in Rochester and the two new friends get off.
A young officer in army fatigues comes up to me. “Mam please state your citizenship.”
As weird as this seemed to me I muster a smile and say “U.S.A.”
He smiled back and quickly moved on to some other random passengers asking the same question.
I’m on a train going across New York State…not crossing any boarders, so I get an unsettled feeling about his having approached me at all. A scenario flashes across my brain of being a fortunate Christian German woman being asked this question on a train in 1942 by a Nazi soldier looking for Jews.
In this case I was no threat. I somehow belonged there and was safe. He smiled and moved on. But then I heard “Sir…state your citizenship. “
The man’s reply was very quiet. The soldier barked at him “I cannot hear you sir. Do you have your immigration papers?”
The man replied quietly once again.
“Sir you are required by law to have papers with you at all times. It is against the law under U.S. immigration codes to travel with out these papers and documents.”
A quiet but terrified utterance…
The soldier has a louder tone now “Sir…have you ever been arrested?”
Same quiet utterance…
The scene is unfolding behind me and I don’t want to turn around to see the result of this encounter but I hear rustling and a commotion and I’m certain the man was escorted forcibly from the train. I feel like a traitor somehow, for simply sitting there…I feel uncomfortable and privileged within what feels like a new fascistic frightening America… we sat there as though this was all OK and normal? It is quiet now. Non of the other passengers look at each other…eyes downward pretending to focus on their papers and magazines.
The train lurches forward and I am headed home.
