“Ok, so what’s the deal here? What’s the meaning of this outrage? Your train is stopped but there’s cars out there with places to go.” I was in no mood for excuses and it showed.

“Haven’t you ever had dreams, though?” said the engineer. “Haven’t you dreamt beyond your car or truck or train? I have. I’ve dreamt big. you know what I’ve dreamt of?”

The engineer didn’t wait for me to respond, he said, “I want to be an airplane pilot! One of those commercial jets that are like screaming piles of metal in the sky! They’re just shaped right is the difference. They’re designed to fly and not slink along for a different sort of commerce like this damnable freight.”

“Start this train up. I’ll follow you. I’ll follow you in my stationwagon. I’ll find a way to make your dreams come true.” I had no idea what I was doing, or if I was even telling the truth. But racing back to my car alongside the train that now stirred in slow but forward motion I knew I was going to do as I said. The engineer would live his dream, and soon, too.

I found my way. I knew just what to do. It would require a little of chance. A little of fate’s assistance. But that’s what it was, I believe fate had contrived to work through me. I was no longer a man who’d been stopped an inordinate length of time at a train crossing, and then sought to understand why. I was a man following a train engineer and that engineer’s dreams.