Mama and the Train (no, I didn't throw her off)

My sister lives in the San Fernando Valley. I've written about driving there before. It's less than two hours, and most of the drive is on a large highway that few people use. It's an easy jaunt.

There is also an Amtrack station about a mile away from her house. She has been urging my mother and me to take the train and go visit her for a weekend. Me? I prefer to drive. Besides, Charlie isn't allowed on the train in any circumstances.

Last weekend Mom calls me and says she's going to go down and see Amy on Friday, and come back on Saturday on the train, and would I like to go too? I remind her about the no pets policy, the fact that it's Labor Day weekend, and that it's the first week of school and I am swamped with stuff to do.
"Are you sure Charlie can't come on the train?"
"Yes Mom, I went into the station downtown and asked a real live person."
"Oh."
Long silence.

I told her I would love to go some other time when I could drive, but I needed more notice.

Okay, so the end of my first week of school comes along. School gets out at 2:30 for most kids, and I'm in my room trying to get set up for this week, so I don't have to come in over the weekend. Around 3pm, my cell phone rings.
"Oh hi honey. I'm about to go now to Amy's. I'm going to drive...even though I didn't want to leave my car at the station...I'm driving over to the station now. I wanted to get a taxi but they said they don't have any cabs available right now... it's not such a good place... the train station... to leave my car.... but it's only overnight..."

"Mom? Wait a minute. I don't get what you're saying. When does your train leave?"

"Um, three-thirty. Yes, around three thirty. But I want to get over there early enough so I don't miss my train, and I'm worried if I wait for a taxi I'll miss the train. I called Yellow Cab, and they said they are all booked up right now, and you know Rose Cab never shows up. I said I'd never use Blue Dolphin cab again. It's just that the station isn't in the best part of town you know..."

(Okay, first off, my mom lives about 2 miles from the station. Also, it's not like our town is a huge city. It's small, and the "bad" areas just have less paint. It's not like gangs and streetwalkers are hanging out by the station. The station is actually right next to a citrus grove. Yeah, a real bad element there. Lastly, there are about 10 cab companies she could use. If you read closely, you'll see that she only called one. Then called me. Just to say "goodbye." Uh-huh.)

"Mom, I could take you."

(I know, shut up. I offered myself up to it this time, I know.)

"Oh no honey. I couldn't ask you to do that. That's not why I called. Oh, but it would help out so much... no, you have things to do, don't you? You don't want to come all the way out here, do you?"

Well, no. But that's not what I said. Besides, as I said before, it's a small place. She's acting like I'm going to have to drive 30 miles to get her. She lives six miles away from where I work.

"It's okay Mom. I have to go out and pay rent anyway, since I forgot yesterday. I'll be out there in a few minutes."

"Are you sure dear? I mean, it would be such a big help, but I don't want to put you out. I just called to tell you I was going, I didn't mean for you to have to take me..."

So she's outside her apartment building waiting for me. We get to the station, and she looks at the ticket again.
"Oh, I wasn't right, the train comes closer to 4 o'clock. "

Yep, I didn't have to rush, the train comes at 3:57. Well, I guess in her mind that's close enough to 3:30, right?

I wait with her until we see the train come up, and I send her off. I go and buy notebooks for my students who said they couldn't afford the $1.59 ones I asked them to get. I use the $20 my mom stuffed into my glove box "for gas." She's always doing that. We argue about it, and she wins. My sister and I have this plan to start a savings account for her just with the money she gives us. It bugs me that she feels the need to pay me for doing a favor. I go pay my rent, buy a bunch of fruit and vegetables at the grocery store, and head home.

My sister calls at ten to six.

"Becky? Mom is stuck on the train. They haven't left yet."
"What? I put her on the train when it came in the station! Why didn't she call me?"

Amy tells me how Mom called her and said that there had been a problem with a freight train, and so all the other trains were backed up. There was going to be up to a three-hour delay. Amy suggested they do the visit another time, but no, Mom was already on the train, and she was comfortable. Amy then suggested calling me and at least getting a bite to eat while she waited, but no again. What if they train left while she was off of it? It was up to a three-hour wait, but it could be shorter. So, instead of 6:27, Mom would get in closer to 9:30pm. That is, if the train really did get going in three hours.

So, why did Amy call me? Well, you see, Mom has this thing where she turns off her cell phone except when she's using it. She doesn't want to 'wear out the battery." She will get quite cross at times when I don't answer my phone for some reason or another, but if I talk about how I can't reach her she says, "if the battery runs down, then where will I be?"

I've told her many times, "Just plug it in and charge it every night." but she doesn't. She finally told me that the guy at the cell phone place told her "it's better for the battery to let it run down almost all the way before charging it again."

I think she just doesn't want to be bothered with charging it, and so made up the story about the cell phone guy.

And so, there's no way to get ahold of Mom, so Amy wants me to drive out to the station again to see if Mom will get off now. She's thinking it's going to be too late when Mom arrives for them to do anything, and that Mom must be hungry by now. If we could call her, it would solve all this, but we can't.

I know, some of you cell-phone-less folks are thinking, "well, what would you have done before you all had cell phones?"

The point is, we do all have cell phones, Mom just chooses not to use hers in a way that's convenient for anyone else.

I don't really want to go out there, as I had just gotten home, and I wanted to relax. Besides, what if the train left already? No, Amy tells me that Mom said she'd call when the train got going again. So, yes, I get in the car and head out there again.

There is a train off to the side at the station, but not one where people can board. I walk the length of the boarding area, trying to see into the train, but it seems empty. None of the doors are open, and I see no one on it. I call my sister and tell her what I see.
"That's weird."
"Yeah, so what do you want me to do now?"

Amy then calls "Julie" the voice message system for Amtrack. Julie doesn't help much, so she gets on the phone with a live person. She then calls me back on her cell phone, and is trying to talk to both of us at the same time. It's not too successful, and I start to get annoyed.

Finally, we figure out that the train isn't at our station, and hasn't gotten to the next one. It's stopped in the middle somewhere, so Mom couldn't get off now if she wanted to.

Argh.

I leave a message for Mom to call me if she wants me to pick her up at the next station, and tell Amy to tell her that if she calls.

Then I sit at home, drinking diet Pepsi in case I have to pick her up. And I really wanted a glass of wine.

At 9 or so, Amy calls and says Mom's staying on the train. Great.

Then, Saturday? Mom's ride back? Some train hit a car on the same track (an empty car, no one was hurt), and there was going to be at least a 4-hour delay.

Amy had to drive Mom home.