in an instant

michael had disturbed dreams last night: a series of narrow escapes. this is story told to us by the protagonist as we commuted home on the 1730 to bangor last evening.

an acquaintance, a kind and open hearted fellow, full of entertaining stories from his employ as a high class travel agent, had a close brush with death last week. close. hairline. as narrow as the gap between the wallpaper and the plasterboard.

having missed his usual commuter train home this travel agent, with two adoring children waiting in their comfortable home on the outskirts of town, decided that rather than waiting the requisite 26 minutes for the arrival of the next one, he would take another line. time being of the essence if he was to make it, he concluded, in what would prove to be a momentary lapse of his sanity and sensibilities, that he would cross the tracks in the station rather than take the long route over the walk bridge. checked his watch, eyed the timetable, made his decision and turned toward the tracks, and with his toes on the edge of the platform he was confronted with the dublin-belfast express train flying through. wasn't just coming. it was there. flesh and steel. face to face. hadn't heard it. hadn't seen it. frozen to the spot with breath lost in his throat as the train hurtled past, the travel agent was buffeted by the turbulent air that filled the inch slim gap between his nose and the carriages rocketing by. less than a second from mortality. one step forward with his right foot and the express train would have hit him without his left even leaving the platform.

so out of character was this spontaneous recklessness that his wife would have told any subsequent inquest that he must have thrown himself intentionally under the train. suicide. no big insurance payout. no note of explanation or goodbye.

he waited for the next train home - 20something minutes to be spent idly on the platform now no longer seeming an inconvenience. his hands were shaking. his wife meanwhile would have be left for a lifetime. wondering why.