SueAnn Porter

A man is walking on the train tracks, eating an ice cream cone, and listening to his ipod with his earbuds tucked deeply into his ears. I see that a train is coming towards him, but he can’t see it. The train blows its horn but he can’t hear it because of the earbuds. His eyes are on his ice cream cone.

I yell to him, “Hey, get off the tracks!”

A bystander turns to me and says, “That was rude. He’s enjoying his day. Who do you think you are to tell him to get off the tracks? What makes you in charge of the tracks? Why do you think it’s any of your business?

I wave my arms at the man walking. “There’s a train coming! Get off the tracks!” The man sees me out of the corner of his eye. He looks up at me but goes right back to his ice cream cone.

The bystander chides, “See, he doesn’t want to hear what you are saying. Who do you think you are? You can’t just stick your nose into his life and tell him what to do. You’re so obnoxious!”

“Don’t you see the train?” I get angry with the bystander, but then I realize that the bystander is near-sighted. He can’t see the train either.

“What train? Now you’re just making up fairy tales. There is no train. People like you invent trains to keep people scared so you can control them.”

“No, really, please believe me, there is a train.”

“Fairy tale.” He walks next to the tracks.

“Please stay off the tracks, the train is coming,” I warn him. He rolls his eyes at me.

I leave the bystander, run up to the man on the tracks and pull him off just in time.

“Hey, you ruined my ice cream cone, and broke my ipod.” He huffs at me.

“There was a train.” I point.

He looks up and sees the train go into the distance. He breathes a sigh of relief when he realizes I am telling him the truth. “Oh, wow. Thank you, you saved my life.”

I nod. I look up just in time to see the train hit and kill the bystander.

Why wouldn’t he listen?

**