Soul Snatcher
Soul Snatcher (Train Logic)
At precisely 7:45 am every morning, the Tri-State, Tri-Rail A train departs from the NJ northern corridor station with a final destination of New York City. The C train returns the workers on the same track daily. Mr. Hollow is a steady customer. He is seated there-in on one of the leathery looking seats, seats not really made of leather but some man made fabric. It will suffice for his and other commuters for their comfort and obviously for cost savings reasons, as real leather can be somewhat expensive.
For five days of the work week Frank Hollow travels to the big city because the pay and opportunities are better there. The monthly train passes are reasonably priced so he keeps his car tucked away in his garage back at home somewhere in Jersey and takes the tedious trip as a financial convenience. He is confined in his little world of the mobile cabin, traveling over tracks at a safe speed of 65 mph on ancient metal wheels of steel as he reads his newspaper, becomes buried in thought, lost in them, feeling tired but safe between the pages.
To save even more money, some smart person at the train company came up with the idea to have a series of switches installed so that trains traveling from different directions could use the same track at the same time. How smart is that? All you have to do with this concept is to be perfect and have perfect timing. Humans can be perfect. They are capable of precision timing but sadly not all the time.
Someone had placed two trains on the same track, traveling towards each other at break neck speed on this particular day. There was a system failure and clearly human failure at play. It was speculated that some switch had been mistakenly switched, causing the confusion.
They called the collision an accident. Every one agreed it was an accident. That was a normal response. 57 people were killed instantly on impact. That was to be expected under the prevailing circumstances. Another 50 people died later from their injuries sustained in the accident.
It cost too much money to have two separate tracks. What an absurd concept to think that one set of tracks should be devoted for trains to travel 100% of the time in one direction and another set of rails devoted for trains to travel exclusively in another direction. If a train could only legally travel in one direction, say north, that train or set of trains could never have a head on collision. How strange is that? Head on collisions would become impossible but let us not get carried away with the ridiculousness of common sense and saving lives. It is not the same as saving money. Everyone knows that.
Poor Mr. Hollow. He never did make it to his job. He never thought that two trains would be traveling on the same track from opposite directions towards each other. He was thrown through the window of his carriage upon the impact of the two locomotives and landed in some thorny bushes in considerable pain but still alive. The bushes were springy enough to save his life. Both trains had been traveling at 65 mph when they collided. There was fire and smoke everywhere. Frank was filled with fear and tried to crawl away from the danger by using his arms and hands as his legs and feet had been severely damaged when he was ejected from his compartment.
There was a character with a bright red rubber outfit coming towards him, coming up from behind him. He was a large figure with a black goatee, where the hairs on the lower chin were tapered to a point. The entity lumbered through and around the glowing flames with amazing agility. The surrounding landscape had become one burning furious inferno. Orange and yellow embers twisting in the tormented winds, lifting, reaching high into the sky. Mr. Hollow thought for certain that this being creeping up on him must be the devil himself coming to take him away.
It turned out that the apparition was a fireman coming to his rescue. Frank felt weird for having such a silly thought in the first place. Most people these days, including Mr. Hollow, do not believe in God or religion and definitely, it goes without saying, no devils or demons or hell.
According to the national newspapers, God died back in the 60's. It made front page news back then. They never confirmed the cause of His demise. In fact they never confirmed His existence in the first place but we are left to speculate or guess about that matter. The fact that they even mentioned Him to say that He is dead is in a way an affirmation that He had once existed. Frank, being an avid reader of the newspaper for many years, was convinced, along with many others that if something is in print it must be true.
In general, people have faith in the printed word. They figure it must be true because if they print something and it turns out not to be true, then the author would be doing something criminal or at least something unethical and would be punished for such an act. There must be a newspaper police force out there somewhere to keep the truth straight. No one likes to read between the lines.
The concept of “fake news” is not an option. Fake news is some demented concept perpetrated by religious fanatics and fossilized conservatives. There is a bridge in Brooklyn that is very cheap. It was advertised on sale last week in the newspaper and it is only going to get cheaper. If you are liberal it is practically for free. Please buy it before it is gone.
Mr. Hollow was hospitalized. He is happy to be alive and not have to worry about devils and demons and unhappy things. What is the practical use of being liberal if you can't be happy?
He feels certain, even optimistic that the train company will rebuild the one track back to its original glory and perhaps even repair a switch or two along the route.
Trains will continue to collide and so will ideas about the matter. Soul snatcher logic will see to that and that's a fact.
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