I was living in the suburbs and working in the city.  Consequently, I lived and died by the train schedule.    Each day I drove to the train station, parked, and caught a train to another world.  The trains ran rather regularly  and had express routes during “rush” hours, but after the commuter trains stopped there was often an hour wait between the trains which made — every — stop.  If I missed the last express train, I would be very, very late for work.

On this particular day, I had trouble finding a parking space.

“Damn,” I thought, as I drove around the lot.  “I cannot miss this train.   I can’t.”

I was working at a law firm where they proudly told new associates the story of how the founding partner died at his desk.  This was something to aspire to, according to them — so long as our time sheets were in order  (Ha ha — and by that I mean, not funny at all . . . but I digress . . . ).

The Ancient Ailing Managing Partner in “Intolerable Cruelty”

Needless to say, strolling in late was, well,  frowned upon.

Finally, I found a semi-legal parking space and ran down to the tracks just as my train pulled in.   But I was “running” in dress clothes and carrying a briefcase.  It wasn’t pretty — or effective, especially since the train pulls in on the opposite side of the parking lot  and I had to run down the stairs, cross under the tracks, and run back up the stairs to actually board my train.

I didn’t make it.

As I climbed the steps on the other side I witnessed my train pulling away.

The next train, which was not an express and therefore would take the full 43 minutes to get to the city, would not come for another 50 minutes.

Sure, I could drive into town and pay an arm and a leg and my first-born to park,  but I would still be late for work.   I cursed myself and the world — Damn, damn, damn.  I hoped the partners wouldn’t see me coming in late.  I should have left earlier. I had no one to blame but myself.

I wished with all my heart that I’d made that train. I ached to have caught that train.  But all I was left to do was  just stand there — all alone — watching my train pull away. I was left  there like the last dog  at a shelter.

Rose whispering to the life boat to “Come back” in Titanic

I think I even whispered out loud, “Come baaaack” before I hung my head in defeat.

(I hope you can feel the tragedy of it all.  I was having a very bad day.)

But then, I looked up again.

The train . . .

The train . . . was . . . coming . . . back!

I thought I’d lost my mind.   I did the cartoon character rubbing my eyes with my fists thing.   I looked around to see if anyone else could see this, because it was surreal.   But I was alone.  Everyone else had actually caught the train — which was slowly, but deliberately, coming back.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Had I willed this to happen?  (Was it like in that first Harry Potter when Harry makes the glass around the  snake  cage vanish, yet is totally oblivious of his powers?)  

Was I being Punked? (Where were the cameras?  Ashton?)

Things like this just don’t happen.  Not in real life.  Not in Suburbia. Not to me.

But sure enough, the train pulled back into the station.

Tentatively, I stepped up to the now open door.

           “Can I get on?” I asked the conductor, sheepishly.

            “Yeah,” he answered.   I must have looked spooked because he volunteered that there was some sort of switching problem.

Huh.

But you couldn’t tell me that I hadn’t brought that train back out of  the sheer force of my will  —  or it was divine intervention — because almost as soon as I embarked, the train started again, and took me into the city, express style.

I smiled the entire trip.

It was a commuting miracle.  A miracle, I say.

So, when I’m feeling a little blue, sometimes I think of the miracles in my life.    And it’s not always the obvious or the big stuff — like births and graduations and crap.  Sometimes, I think about the day the train came back . . . just for me.

Just Me With . . . a commuting miracle.