I Did a Bad Thing Today

I did a bad thing today. The train schedule is messed up as usual. While trains to Lidcombe arrive every 15 minutes or so, tonight the next one is arriving 28 minutes later, after the East Hills train.



I noticed this girl looking at the train schedule in frustration, then making a call to someone (her parents, her boyfriend, whoever) to relay the information. A few minutes later, the East Hills train vanished into thin air, and a Turella train tooks its place. It's arriving in 3 minutes' time, and the Lidcombe one in 2. I continued reading the new books catalouge I picked up from Abbey's. Again, the girl made another quick call.



A train came, then another. A quick look at the display shows this is still the Turella train. Wait a minute. What's going on here?! Did another train jump the queue? Did the screen fail to refresh? The Turella train is supposed to be 8-car, but this one's a 4-car.



I made the best possible decision under the circumstances and made a run for it. A quick check with the conductor proved that my hunch was correct. While I was feeling smug for my quick thinking, a sudden wave of guilt hit me. I forgot to tell the girl! A quick shout, a wave of the hand would've sufficed, but in my haste it totally slipped my mind. I don't even want to guess how much longer she has to wait for the next train. I'm sure she saw me running after the train, and after she finds out she missed the right train, she's not gonna be happy.



To the girl, if you happen to be reading this, my sincere apologies.