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Jan. 4th, 2005 08:53 am
The Nowhere Train
This morning, I remembered something else that contributed to the dreamlike air of yesterday. Because I just saw it again: The Nowhere Train.
I woke up at 3:30 on Monday and couldn't get back to sleep. Balancing my checkbook, reading my boring Japanese novel--nothing worked. So I cleaned up and headed into work an hour early. (Always good for keeping everyone on their toes!) It was dripping rain and dark when I got to the el platform. The next northbound train to arrive was unlabeled. At first, I thought it was only the front of the head car that lacked the customary red "Howard" sign, but as it rolled past, I saw that every single display was blank, revealing only the weakly lit milky plastic backing.
At that moment, all the Gaiman reading got to me and I imagined that the train was anonymous because it had no destination and, if I climbed aboard, I could ride it forever through the mists of the Dreaming. Didn't happen of course: It stopped at Howard where we were all shunted out, like always.
Today, I saw it again. Just for fun, the announcer at Howard told us the Express was coming in on the inside track so that I would, against my better judgement, abandon my position on the outside edge of the platform and get zinged when the Express came in on the outside track after all. It took me a while to figure this out, though, since it was the Nowhere Train that came in on the inside track. Again, not a single sign in any window.
It left the station only shortly after we did, so I was able to follow its progress. As the Express climbed a sinuous overpass, I looked out the back window and saw it hugging the ground below us. It was then that I realised that, by disembarking at Howard as was my habit, I missed out on seeing where it was really headed. Did it simply idle to a stop somewhere in the huge train yard I was passing over? That would seem reasonable, yet part of me isn't ready to believe that.
I woke up at 3:30 on Monday and couldn't get back to sleep. Balancing my checkbook, reading my boring Japanese novel--nothing worked. So I cleaned up and headed into work an hour early. (Always good for keeping everyone on their toes!) It was dripping rain and dark when I got to the el platform. The next northbound train to arrive was unlabeled. At first, I thought it was only the front of the head car that lacked the customary red "Howard" sign, but as it rolled past, I saw that every single display was blank, revealing only the weakly lit milky plastic backing.
At that moment, all the Gaiman reading got to me and I imagined that the train was anonymous because it had no destination and, if I climbed aboard, I could ride it forever through the mists of the Dreaming. Didn't happen of course: It stopped at Howard where we were all shunted out, like always.
Today, I saw it again. Just for fun, the announcer at Howard told us the Express was coming in on the inside track so that I would, against my better judgement, abandon my position on the outside edge of the platform and get zinged when the Express came in on the outside track after all. It took me a while to figure this out, though, since it was the Nowhere Train that came in on the inside track. Again, not a single sign in any window.
It left the station only shortly after we did, so I was able to follow its progress. As the Express climbed a sinuous overpass, I looked out the back window and saw it hugging the ground below us. It was then that I realised that, by disembarking at Howard as was my habit, I missed out on seeing where it was really headed. Did it simply idle to a stop somewhere in the huge train yard I was passing over? That would seem reasonable, yet part of me isn't ready to believe that.
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