There goes that stupid train again! Shirley was about 50 yards from the tracks when the crossing arms came down. Man! Here I go again! Now I have to wait, again! There was no way Shirley could count how many times she had gotten stopped by that train. It was so frustrating.
She just lived over on the next block. Normally, there was a back route to detour around the train, when it came, but thanks to summer construction, that back route was temporarily closed. Without that back route, you’d have to go five miles out of your way to get around the train.
That train could be a real pain in the neck. It seemed like it would come through at least ten times a day. Now with the detour route closed off, drivers would sometimes get pretty angry when they had to wait for the train to go through.
Sometimes, it would just be stopped. Not moving at all. Sometimes it could be stopped for up to ten, or fifteen minutes.
Many times when those crossing arms would come down, and red lights started flashing, a few impatient drivers would get bold, and try to drive around them before the train got there. Not Shirley. You risk your life doing things like that.
Last winter, Shirley walked up to the little store down the street. It was a cold day, but she wanted to get her steps in, so she walked. On the way back from the store, guess what. Yep. The train was going by. Shirley had to stand there and wait in the cold. She waited, and waited, and waited. Finally the train passed by. Shirley was so cold, that when she got home, she had to take a hot bath.
One day, right after one train took about twenty minutes to pass, another train came right by in the opposite direction on the second set of tracks. Talk about aggravation.
Even when she was at home, she could tell when the train was going by, especially with the detour closed for construction. Cars would be backed up on her street for blocks. In a bit of irony, one time when she was waiting on the train to pass, that old 1960s song, “People get ready, there’s a train a comin’,” started playing on the radio. She just had to laugh.
Sometimes, late at night, she could hear the horn blowing as it came by. The horn sounded long, and mournful. For some reason, it always reminded her of the song “Midnight Train to Georgia”, by Gladys Knight and the Pips.
She knew that she couldn’t do anything about the train going through. She just hoped though, that the construction on the back detour route would be finished soon. It would help lower her stress levels.