Exodus at the Train

We interrupt this blog's usual programing for a special announcement.

The train suffered an exodus today.

When I got into the train station at Sagrado Corazón this afternoon (at3:30) the (electric) escalator was broken, and two workers were fixing it. So I had to take the elevator (too lazy to climb the stairs). The elevator is a state of the art machine, very futuristic with glass on its four sides, but, it was hot inside, not scorching hot, but hot still... Little did I know that the broken escalator and the hot elevator were warnings of what was coming.

I got onto the platform and it was full of people, no trains on any of the two tracks. I had never seen the station so full. Finally the train arrives in a timely manner, (that's why I love it, it is so realiable). I got in, I went into the last car, even though I don't like it. I sat in the back, because the air conditioning gets concentrated there and feels nice. And so, my fears of the last train car are not unfounded. They aren't. The last train is wobbly. Unstable. When you ride that car you feel the turns harder than in the other trains (even the first one). And you feel every imperfection of the track. I always fear that it will snap off from the rest of the train in a curve and we will fall off (with my luck) from the highest track. Or get rammed from the back by another train (but wait, then why sit at the back? I didn't really sat at the back, it depends from where you see it, I sat, technically on the front, but it is the seat that is back to back in relation to the previous train car... get it?). Anyway, I said to myself, nothing's going to happen, Joel, just read your book. But I couldn't read my book. There were lots of people in the train, making my head go even wilder with catastrophes. Consider this: more people, more weight on the car + last car's usual instability = more possibilities of derailment. But nothing like that was ever going to happen, I said to myself, and tried to read.

At each train station people would board the train, there were almost no seats available now. It gave me a sense of living in a great polis, just looking at how many people were using the train, and so I was entertained by that. I'm also amused by those who can't decide where to sit, and then the train moves and then they would whimper "wooo", and quickly take the next available seat... Surely, in their minds they thought, "ooph, I survived that!" (I still wait for someone to fall like a grapefruit ("fall like a grapefruit", puertorican saying)).

So then, nothing eventful happened for almost the rest of the way, until we get to Torrimar Station, and we hear the driver talk on the speaker. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman, the train has... [and here his transmition got cut off, for some unexplainable reason] ...so we will be here for about five minutes, thanks for your patience". And I see a woman wearing a yellow vest (the ones that use the employees of the train) run down the platform outside. Not good. Right? Well, about three minutes go by and the trainman/driver speaks again: "Ladies and gentleman, this train is going to be stopped here for some time" ("Este tren va a estar parao aquí por buen tiempo"), and then everyone in the train started to shuffle and get disappointed, oddly no one complained... (I was surprised about that). And the driver continued: "So..." and he paused, "this train is now out of service". And the people were like: "ooook... now what". Everyone was stupefied. And then, the driver said: "You can go to track two, the next train that arrives will take you to Bayamón". And the people had a late-reaction, about 20 seconds passed before everyone got the messege of: get out of the fucking train and go to the other side of the platform to take the other one, bitches... (hyperboles, I can't help it).

And so, the exodus started.

(I wanted to use the word exodus because it's so biblical and cataclismic and so alarming sometimes... and I saw last night a documentary on the biblical plagues, so... And also it was the right word to use after all, so the purpose of this paragraph is nule, but I'll still leave it because I used biblical and cataclismic inside a parenthesis which is always awesome). (now back to the story).

And so, the exodus began.

The train was so full. And now we had to take another train that would certainly be full too. And Torrimar station is the kind of sation where you have to go up the stairs, across the mezzanine and down again on the other side, unlike other sations where the platform is between tracks. The stairs were crowded with people, something I never thought I would see (or at least not yet). But oddly enough no one was angry or taken aback by the whole thing.

It happens that someone in the first car of the train had some medical issue and the train had to be stopped (or that's my conclusion, for I saw some medics there, and also thought, "wooo, medics, this train is really really versatile and reliable". So the public went up, and then down the other side, and the new train arrived on the track that normally runs to the opposite way. My brain started to tick again, "we will crash with an oncoming train... oh my gosh, and the worst part is that the people are cramming themselves in the first car, instead of going all the way to the back", which I did, I didn't want to die in a car full of people, I would take my chances again on the last car.

I survived. The train changed to its rightful track shortly after and everyone got to their destinations safe and sound. But it was a nice story to tell and I had to tell it, 'cause I love the train.

ps. but i'm still surprised about the whole orderly manner in which everything occured; today I'm proud.
ps2 (playstation2), bytheway, tomorrow is this blog's Birthday! woohoo!