Tragic Similarities
This interruption gave Edward a short time to think. He took a swig from his beer glass and closed his eyes. It began to occur to him that each of these people had been through a truly tragic set of circumstances. His cynical instinct began to consider the possibility that whomever had orchestrated this abhorent runaway train, this Mr.Scayben, had targetted these people specifically. So was he target as well? How did he fit into this? Unfortunately, Edward then begun to reflect upon his own life circumstances. He started to consider that perhaps his own ‘story’ was indeed more similar to these people surrounding him than he had first assumed. In the past two years he had lost two jobs, the first due to being bullied in the workplace and the second due to excessive drinking. He wasn’t a bonefide alcoholic, he drank as a way to relieve stress, except that it had effected his conduct at work. He had also been an awful husband, he’d let his wife down in every husbandly duty possible. He’d gotten into a daily habit of feeling weak and sorry for himself, but would mention nothing to his wife, Charlotte. This had made him seem aloof and sulky. She had rightly become aloof and distant the past year too. He knew she didn’t love him anymore and he had kept away from the house as a means of appeasing her. This had lent to more self-pity and to the times when he would find himself at a bar drinking alone late into the night. His mouth grew more downturned as he recalled the memories and he took another large swig from the beer glass. Conversation amongst the others had started again, he heard a loud laugh from Kerry, but managed to filter that out and notice the train rattling along the track. It seemed to him to be moving even faster than before. At that moment he remembered the confusion with his brother’s ID card and wished, as he often had done, that he was more like him. His brother was a guy whom everything seemed right with, especially in the past year. In all honesty he had probably seen more of his brother than of Charlotte these past few months. Richard was the picture of success and Edward knew it, sadly Charlotte often reminded him of it too, “If only you were more like your brother”, she would say. Even worse for Edward, he couldn’t blame her either, as he blamed himself.
Suddenly a face rushed in front of him, interrupting his solumn mood. It was the energetic Kerry again, “Cheer up chap!”, she said bluntly, “So, Eddy, what’s your story then? When did Mr.Skayben meet with you?”, she enquired.
Edward’s Story
“My story?”, he replied somewhat aghast. His bout of sad self-reflection had put Edward in no mood to answer diplomatically. He didn’t mean to, but he snapped back, “Honestly I don’t have a story! I’ve never met Mr.Scayben nor heard of this challenge!”.
His reaction caused Kerry to step back uttering, “Ok Mister Angry! Sorry I even asked!”. There was a confused consternation from the others, as the loudness of Edward’s response was heard by all.
“Come now Edward, there’s no need to carry on with this pretence now!”, said Kevin with a hint of disappointment in his voice, “People here have been very honest with you, there’s nothing to be afraid of, my friend.”
“The boy is clearly in a perplexed state, sir, a diagnoses by John C Powell would be that he was…”, began John only to be cut-off sharply by Edward.
“…No!”, he interrupted, “The only story I have is that this morning I went out for a drink with my brother and I woke up in a railway carriage on this train”. He pointed vaguely towards the corridor where the cabin he was up in was located, adding, “Please try to understand that!”
“Yes well, we all understand that you boarded this train and snored very loudly for three whole hours!”, interjected Sian.
Edward was finding Sian’s comments quite annoying, her whole manner of speaking had been with a condescending tone, but oddly enough she had helped him more than all the others in explaining the current situation. Her latest remark added one bit of information he did not know, he had been here for three hours! Ignoring Sian’s rudeness, he starred intently at John and said, “Mr.Powell, you are right, I am very confused, I do not know how I got here and do not want to be here either! I wish I was still in the pub with my brother!”
Sian enjoyed provoking conflict and she now quipped one of her favourite non-sequiturs at him, “Is it simply because you think you are better than us?”, “I expect that is the real reason you don’t want to be here!”
Justification
Edward’s eyes bulged in anger at her remark, this woman had no idea about his life nor how much he did not want to be on a runaway train with these eight strangers.
Just as he was about to respond with a most biting answer, which he would have certainly regretted, Chloe stepped forward. She coughed loudly before saying, “Oh please let me speak! Perhaps if I tell Edward what happened to me, maybe it will help him?”.
“That is a very good idea”, agreed Kevin who was clearly a little frustrated by Edward.
Edward had previously noticed Chloe to be the quietest amongst the group, but she articulated her story with more feeling and depth than any of the others. She described how she worked for a charity for orphaned children and had no living relatives. She sometimes worked 16 hour shifts, changing beds and cleaning the rooms but that wasn’t a problem to her, she loved the work, it was so rewarding. It was the arthritus in her hands that she knew would soon prevent her continuing. She explained that the money would go to the charity, “$100,000 would help so many of those poor children, it may be my sacrifice, but it will be all for them”.
Upon hearing Chloe’s account, Edward closed his eyes and exhaled deeply again, her tragic story sent him into an even lower mood. He was trying to keep calm as best he could, but it was no use. He had now heard five stories and judged Chloe to be a sweet kind, eldery lady. He hugely respected her reasoning and had genuine sympathy for her cause, but simply could not fathom the logic behind her justification for being on this train. Surely there would always be more she could do if she were alive. Unable to help himself he uttered with the utmost exasperation, “I’m so sorry to hear this, but don’t any of you want to live?”.
“Course we do, pal, this is living! I’m on a runaway train drinking a great beer with a chance of winning a MILLION BUCKS!”, hollered Gary.
“Yes! We have lived, we have enjoyed life as best we can! Our lives have to end at some point and what better than on an exciting runaway train ride!”, piped up Kevin.
Edward was somewhat bemused by these answers, but everyone else in the carriage stood there nodding in agreement.
“I wasn’t living before Mr.Scayben turned up, pal”, Derek scowled in the background.
“We all chose to do this, we were given free choice”, said Sian in a triumphant way, “This is to benefit others far more than us, our families and those around us, you have to understand it’s not about us. It is just as Mr.Scayben descrbied, our significant others will live wonderful lives and we could still win $1Million!”.
John coughed then added, “Yes sir, I am in a similar predicament to Chloe, as I am not as well man, but this is a glorious opportunity. Financially lives will be changed thanks to us and the productive gratitude will be a glorious benefit from that. It’s the best legacy John C Powell could ever leave behind”. He said this most matter of factly.
Peter now tapped Edward on the shoulder, “Edward, try to understand, my friend, my family will get $100,000 whatever the outcome is and that will set them up for a far greater life, it is a sacrifice worth making”.
Edward sighed trying to think of a justification for disagreeing with them, but found himself unable to. He floundered through some more questions to them and each was met with a far smarter answer than he was expecting. He was not a religious man, but in desperation he eventually found himself asking, “Do none of you consider this a sin? Is this not suicide?”
At this point Derek stepped forward from the crowd in a perturbed manner. Edward’s question had clearly made him even angrier than he been earlier. “Now I gotta say something! I’m going to tell you why it’s not a sin, because for what it’s worth, I used to be a pastor, son!”
Derek’s abruptness startled Edward somewhat.
“Granted I don’t believe in that stuff any more, but it’s not suicide when there’s a chance you’ll live! This is arguably more a calculated risk than anything else and like the others have said the end result is to benefit others!”, concluded Derek.
“Yeah I like that! A calculated risk, it’s like getting on a plane, only the odds aren’t so great!”, clipped in Gary, once again smirking into his beer.
“Yes, think about it, Edward, there is always a chance that we might survive, so it’s definitely not suicide, how can it be, when there’s a chance we might survive?”, repeated Peter, “We are not doing this to kill ourselves, we are doing it for good reason and for the others”.
Derek signalled agreement with a thumbs up and continued his explanation, “That is exactly it. For me, in my situation, this is more like a big gamble that may or may not pay off. You need to quit pretending you don’t understand Edward, you know all this as well as I do!”
Edward felt quit inadequate at his inability to find a flaw in their answers and he felt intimidated by Derek’s threatening manner. He glanced across to Kerry, hoping for an inkling of sympathy, but he received nothing. She merely rolled her eyes and cried out, “Honey understand this, it’s like they said, it’s not suicide, it’s life improvement for the world! We will be remembered and we will be loved. We are kinda like pioneers for a new kind of charity!”. She gave a wide smile after saying this.
“Amen!”, responded Derek, nodding once again and starring at Edward as he said so.
“Yes they are right, for example I will be remembered by my grand children as giving them the gift of a wonderful and secure college education”, proudly resounded Kevin, “This simply would not be possible without Mr.Scayben’s offer”.
“Here! Here! To Mr.Scayben again!!”, applauded Gary, clinking Kevin’s glass. There was even a clap of applause from Peter and a couple of the others.
