Trying To Make Sense Of It All
John’s utterance distracted the crowd away from Edward and they began to discuss the name on the ID card amongst themselves. There were various nods of agreement directed toward John C. Powell, clearly they concurred with what he had said and an ID card with the name “Richard” on it made it hard to disagree.
Edward pondered the situation some more, a short while later he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He turned and found it was Kevin, “Well that’s the introductions over with and that was quite some introduction, Mr.Edward”, he said kindly, “Let’s get you a drink and something to eat from the bar?”
“Thank you Kevin”, replied Edward. Just as he was about to ask Kevin for a strong coffee, the annoying tall man(Gary was it?) joyfully butted in saying, “Good call on getting a drink, pal! I need another beer, I’ll get Eddy-boy one too!”. Gary meandered over to the beer tap and began filling two glasses. He swayed as he did so, clearly indicating he was somewhat inebriated.
Gary finished pouring the beer and handed a glass to Edward. As he did so, the carriage jolted slightly. Edward heard a points-bell loudly ringing outside the train. The ringing rapidly faded as they passed it, the train seemed to be going quite fast, but where were they going? Edward wondered to himself again. The motion of the carriage caused Gary to spill a small amount of beer on Edward’s shirt and Edward decided this man really was rather a brash and annoying fellow. Despite these reservations he managed to mutter, “Thanks” in response to Gary’s generosity. Edward picked up a napkin and dabbed the dampness on shirt, while Kevin stretched an arm out across the bar, picked up one of the plates of pastries and offered it to Edward. He gratefully grabbed a sugared doughtnut, as he found himself rather hungry. Meanwhile Gary took a swig of his new beer and then began glancing around to see if he had an audience for his next joke.
Turning away from Gary, Edward enquired quietly to Kevin, “I have to ask…What is going on here? Who are these people and why are we here?”.
“What’s going on? What’s going on?”, repeated Kevin in an increasingly loud and amused voice.
Unfortunately or rather fortunately Kevin’s reply was ignored by almost everyone, as Gary swung around towards Edward and began with another smart remark, “Hey Ed, maybe you could rename yourself by deed-poll! If you win the million bucks you could choose a whole new name or hey maybe just call yourself plain Ed Wood!”, he chortled at his own joke once again.
“Hah!”, laughed Kevin, although Edward got the impression it was not so much at Gary’s droll line, but at his question about why they were there.
Peter then responded, “Hey Gary, Richard has only just woken up! Give the man a break!”
Edward wanted to be angry with Gary, but found his curiousity had been intrigued to a far greater extent than his ability to pull off an expression of anger. Did this man just say a ‘win a million dollars’?! Why would he say such a thing?
“Sorry Ed, I didn’t mean it!”, apologised Gary before Edward could think any more about it, then Gary sighed and muttered, “I sure would like that million bucks myself, I’d change my name too”, before necking another swig of beer.
“Gary!”, scowled Sian, “We all agreed we wouldn’t talk about this any more, speaking like this is really not on, even for you, Mr.Subtle!”.
“Yeah! Mr.Big-Shot!”, yelled Kerry eyeing him up and down in a most flirtacious manner, “We got this all out the way earlier, we all know why each of us are here, we made the choice, honey. It really is the chance of a lifetime!”.
Edward bit into the doughnut that Kevin had given him and listened carefully. His eyes flicked over to Gary’s direction again as the tall man began to speak once again.
“Alright alright, Princesses!”, he responded, boldly, locking eyes with Kerry, “Maybe I just forgot to say that if somehow us three made it out of here, I’d offer to take both of you out for a coffee at Gino’s in Main Street sometime! I might even treat you to a piece of gateaux too!”
“Oh Mr.Romance, I’m so charmed, a triple date!”, chortled Kerry, “Oh yeah Ma, I’m going on a triple date with Mr.Big-Shot, oh yeah Ma, he’s a guy I met on a runaway train!”. Kerry clearly loved the attention she was getting from Gary, as opposed to Sian who instead frowned.
“Hey! It would be a train wreck of a relationship before it even started”, quipped in Peter smiling.
“Hah nice one, pal!”, replied Gary raising his glass in amusement.
“Listen to me, it’ll take a bigger miracle than surviving a 100mph runaway train crash for me to go to Gino’s coffee bar with you, Mister Nero!”, Sian announced loudly.
At this remark Edward coughed and spat pieces of doughnut from his mouth.
“A MILLION dollars and a runaway train!”, he spluttered loudly.
He then glanced out the window and noticed the scenary speeding past. He remembered feeling the carriage jolt a minute earlier. He stopped for a second and considered the points-bell he had heard ringing. This could only mean one thing. The train track had changed direction, which in itself isn’t unusual, but Edward knew the points-bell was there to warn the train to slow down, but the train had not slowed down. Not even slightly. Things began to piece themselves together in Edward’s mind…seconds later the truth dawned on him…it was just as Kerry and Sian had said. This must be a runaway train!
“This really is a runaway train!”, he gasped, wiped doughnut pieces from his mouth.
The Aim Explained
His spluttered question sent a wave of confusion amongst the others, but Peter stepped in, “Ha!ha! Edward, good joke, acting so surprised like this!”
The immediate thought of being on an actual runaway train shocked and frightened Edward somewhat, but everyone else seemed so calm, so what was going on? His initial instinct was to get off the train and away from these people as soon as possible, but first things first. He had to find out why they so willing to be on this train and more importantly how had he ended up here amongst them?
He tried to re-compose himself, exhaling slowly, in an attempt to calm his nerves. He had to think quickly! He closed his eyes and tried to recall having the beer with his brother earlier today. He then rememebered the confusion over the ID card in his wallet. This must mean his brother was involved in all this somehow, but how and why? Edward decided the best course of action was to do what he always did in bad situations – apologise and see where it led him. He hoped it would lead him to some means of escape.
“OK sorry guys!”, he began, attempting to hide any anxiety. He starred towards Kevin and the others with a beseeching look on his face, “I drank a beer earlier this morning and have only just woken up, please forgive me for missing out on things, is there any chance one of you could give me a quick reminder of why you are here? It feels like I’ve really missed out on something”
There was a murmuring from the crowd until Sian smugly piped up, “Yes I suppose we could quickly explain our backgrounds to you, as we are all in this together and after all you were so busy with loudly snoring earlier that you missed our earlier discussions”. She glanced around with a smile, enjoying her petty detriment of Edward. Almost immediately Derek began to scowl and argue about why he should have to recall anything again, especially to this man who didn’t even know his own name, but Derek was very much in the minority, so he quietened down.
Sian was first to begin recanting her story to Edward. She described how she and her husband had developed a serious alcohol problem, along with all the troubles that entailed – the loss of jobs and friends, the debts, the fights, the utter shame in her community. Edward could only glance sympathetically at her. She then mentioned how a “Mr.Scayben” had unexpectedly knocked on her door one afternoon, “He changed everything!”, she practically sang out. Edward had no idea who this Mr.Scayben was, but the ring of smiles that followed around the room at the mention of his name, followed by the chorus of “Ah yes!”, gave him cause to suspect everyone else knew the man very well, but who was he?
John C. Powell spoke next about having been unemployed for years “Due to no fault of my own”(he repeated this several times) and the awful illnesses he had also suffered, “My suffering was immense, then Mr.Scayben came along!”, he concluded. As with Sian’s story, the audience all repeated “Ah yes!” joyfully at the mere mention of Mr.Scayben’s name. Edward really wanted to know more about this fellow.
Kerry next joined the conversation. She gave a harrowing account involving numerous men treating her abysmally, whilst she was duty-bound to care for a sick frail mother. Edward felt huge sympathy for her. She finished her account, as the others had done by mentioning the mysterious Mr.Scayben.
Gary took his turn next. He began by describing how he had racked up huge debts due to an illegal finance deal, but to make matters worse he had become a gambling addict, roulette in the casino and the horses at the bookies were his games, but he always lost heavily at both. The situation resulted in his entire family disowning him. Despite deciding he disliked the man, Edward felt saddened at what he said, just as he had been with Sian, John and Kerry’s stories. He found their honesty marvellous, doubting he could do the same. He then wondered if there was common theme of general tragedy amongst them, it sure seemed like it! Their stories had also begun to strike a chord with his own life, especially the past couple of years, but he considered theirs to be a level of woe above his own. He had had a bad time, but not like these poor people. Anyway, he had now heard four people speak but the mystery of Mr.Scayben remained. Just who he was he? what relationship did he have with these people?
The Mysterious Mr.Scayben
As Gary had paused for a moment, Edward took an opportunity, he asked if Mr.Scayben had met up with Gary and changed things for him too.
Gary gave him an immediate answer, “Yeah I met up with Old Scayben more than once and boy am I thankful for that!”
“Same here!”, came the cries once again from the other passengers.
“Man, his questioning was intense!”, added Gary.
“What do you mean?” asked Edward, unable to help himself.
“Well I’m sure you had the same. He asked me all about my life and if I had any ideas on how to resolve my “problems”. I told him I was all out of ideas, so he offered the ‘Once in a lifetime challenge’ all of us here have mentioned”
Edward felt he was finally on the cusp of finding out what all this was really about. Could this be it?
“Oh but you have to keep it top secret, correct?!”, interrupted John C. Powell. Thanks John thought Edward, just as Gary was about to explain to me all this, you’ve ruined it by mentioning it should be kept secret.
Gary nodded in agreement, “Yeah! Old Scayben explained he could make me a deal that would solve all my problems and with a possible Million bucks at the end of it too! I couldn’t believe it!”
Edward found his mouth gaping and his eyebrows raised. He so wanted to ask what the secret was, but knew he had to control himself, luckily his gaping was saved by Kerry.
“Yeah I couldn’t believe it either, he offered a girl like me the chance for a MILLION bucks and a guaranteed hundred grand for my mother either way!”. She practically squealed saying this, “Talk about chance favouring the brave! when you’ve been down on your luck for as long as I have. This was like a golden lotto ticket!”.
Edward decided to try to nudge their conversation a little. He carefully prompted Kerry and Gary to explain a little more about this key piece of the puzzle. It turned out the proposition Mr.Scayben offered was specifically $100,000 in cash for their family(or whomever they chose) and a possible $1Million cash prize for themselves. The “challenge” was for them to board a train, but this would be no ordinary train, it would be a run away train!
John C. Powell then interrupted again, revealing how Mr.Scayben put the offer to him in extremely blunt and honest terms, “When the train reaches its inevitable final destination at the specified time, immediately $100,000 will be transferred to your family’s nominated account. If you survive the incident, you will also win a $1Million prize! If you do not surive and the odds are highly likely that will be the case, your family are always guaranteed $100,000 in cash.”
Mr.Scayben said, “We are the Honourables and we want to help your situation as best we can with this life-changing money, but the choice to take this challenge is entirely your own.”
“He really said that”, enquired a half-shocked Edward.
“Why yes he did, John C. Powell does not forget important details such as this”, said the spectacled man.
Sian, John, Kerry and Gary, the four whom had just given their stories, followed by admitting they each had signed up almost immediately, without any regret or further questioning of their decision.
Gary added, “When I first gathered what he was offering, I gotta admit my own self-preservation kicked in and I balked at the idea, but he suggested I think of the others in my life and what this could do for them. I found myself weighing up the positives and the negatives and realised, why not! I signed on the dotted line right there and then.”
Peter agreed, “Me too! It was an amazing chance offered by Mr.Scayben, especially considering all the things I had told him”. Peter went on to explain that in his own country you would never get a chance like this and the feeling was simliar to that which Kerry had described, much like a winning lottery ticket. Apparently Peter’s wife had medical problems and his parents in South America had been thrown onto the street three months ago.
“I have a criminal record from when I was 18 too, man, no chance of doing much else, my only viable jobs are cleaning or washing up. You ever washed up for 17hours straight for less than minimum wage?”, he asked Edward directly, “Mr.Scayben said this would be an one-off opportunity and I agree with him, signing up gave me peace on a lot of issues”. Nods of sympathy and understanding followed around the carriage.
Edward now glanced at Derek, expecting him to describe his story next, but instead Derek snarled back. For some reason the man seemed a lot more bitter than the others and was in no mood to share anything. The lack of a response from Derek caused a lull in the conversation and the crowd’s attention moved swiftly on as Gary announced, “Hey three cheers for Mr.Scayben! Above all he’s given us the ride of a lifetime!”. A round of cheers was heard.
