this story is too good to not tell. & yes, it does include running. 🙂
so a friend of mine was staying over for a couple of days. this afternoon after school, she left for
the station with a gazillion bags. really - i was amazed she could walk. 🙂
after she was out the door, i got myself ready for a nice afternoon run. sat there eating a banana
and was just going to put on my running shoes when i realized she'd left one of her bags. OH NO! i
thought. checked the watch: 3:49 pm. i knew her train would leave some time around 4pm. the
station's just about a mile from my home.
i knew i was being silly, but i took off and ran down there like i was about to smash some sorta
record (boy, i felt like i was about to die of asphyxiation, or however you spell that), and i got
to the station at exactly 3:58. well. as i got there i heard something on the loudspeakers about a
train to leipzig leaving from track 5. so i got to track 5 but that train was going somewhere else.
puzzled, i checked the departures schedule and it said: leipzig, 4:04, track 12. that's the other
end of the station but good god, i had 5 entire minutes! so i got on track 12 and jogged the length
of the train. checked every wagon. my friend wasn't in
it.
some station attendant was standing around and i asked him if there was, by any chance, a second
train to leipzig, and he squinted at something just outside the station and said, "yes, there it
goes." it had left at 3:59.
i still felt triumphant because i tried, and because i did, technically, make the run in time
(honestly, i hadn't thought i could make it). but i stopped feeling great when i heard that my
friend realized about the bag before she got on the train, and was back at my place trying to get it
when i was at the station. 🙂))
well, she's coming to pick it up right now. so there is a happy ending, even.
cheers, nina