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Captain Pike's Ship Log II

That Certain Amount

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I love the sound of the train. Both, when it pulls into town signaling – you could even tell the differences in the way the whistle is blown. The right person probably could distinguish who is the engineer for the evening. Not even just the train whistle, but sometimes I like to be near the tracks and just hear that clanking and grinding sound and feel the throb of all that power. Man has done terrible stuff.

A guy got hit by a train last spring the next town over. First thought it might've been a suicide until we discovered he may have been walking along listening to music with those stereo earphones and his iPod. You kind of wonder, how does a person get hit by a train, I mean by mistake? After all, you can see it coming, or hear it or even feel it. I'll bet, if it was a mistake, that the guy had time to realize his folly when it was too late. Just imagine.

But, then again, it was just that certain amount of time. That amount like when you realized, that the gig was up – the big gig. It was long enough to know that death was imminent, but not long enough to think of things like my children or what a shame it will be, not swimming in the ocean, and not skiing down the hill next winter, not making love to my wife (she was my girlfriend then) those kinds of things.

Nope, it wasn't a bad way to die.

Updated 09-07-2012 at 11:44 PM by Captain Pike (Redundant verb phrase)

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Autobiographical

Comments

  1. qimissung's Avatar
    Ah, so sad. That happened here about seven or eight years ago. It was a middle school girl. My sons knew her and we heard about it on the evening news. The kids at school speculated that it was suicide, too; and she, too, was wearing headphones as she walked along the track to school one morning. No one could quite believe that she didn't hear or feel something.
  2. Virgil's Avatar
    So sad. It may have been a suicide unless possibly the person was drunk or high. I can't agree it's "not a bad way to die." I'd rather die of old age in bed while asleep during the night just prior to a priest giving me last rites. If I have to die in a violent way I would hope it would be in the effort toward a good cause, not some meaningless accident.

    Nice to see you Cap. Hope things are well.