It was on an overnight train heading south. I was sitting in the far end of the cafe car, 'writing something.' A gangster sat at the next booth, drinking white wine and wistfully remembering his dog. "The dog came with me everywhere," he said. "When he got sick I said, 'Come on you got to do something. Whatever you have to do. I went crazy when that dog died."
Trains are bizarre. You say nothing. People just start talking, they say anything, because you're on a train.
A man from Barbados argued fitfully about love and dating and marriage with two women who must have been in their 80s. They both had black hair, pulled tight back in buns, covered in glittered mesh. One of them was madly in love with the cafe server. She kept going over and buying more things--wine, chips, coffee. "But when will I see you again?" she said, near tears, when he started closing down.
"Take care M'aam," he said curtly. She hung onto the counter, gazing lovingly at him, before finally, slowly, returning to her seat, a little rocky on her feet.
The man from Barbados was telling the women how he had a goldfish that he just adored. "It was this size," he said, holding up his thumb and forefinger to indicate about two inches. "Then you know what I did? I started feeding that fish chicken cutlets. He LOVED chicken cutlets. And cheesy fries. BOOM, he grew to the size of a carp, like this.." Now he held out two hands to measure about two feet. "That's how big he got!" I decided to put him on a diet. I bought fish food pellets for him. He looked at me like...(cocked eyebrow) 'who you think you're feeding that to?' He burst out laughing.
Then he grew serious.
"I went on vacation and I left my fish with my brother. When I came back the fish was gone. 'Oh he died,' my brother said. "DIED? How he die? HOW HE DIE?" I hollered at my brother. 'He had no answer, see. I think..." He wagged his finger in the air accusingly. "I think he fried my fish for dinner."
"Show me his grave then!" I said to him. "Show me his grave!"
"He couldn't. There was no grave. He fried him up for dinner, that's what he did."
The gangster invited me to sleep in his extra sleeper bed. "We don't even have to do nothing. Unless you want to."
"Thank you," I said. "I'm going to sleep in my seat,"
"Suit yourself."
I bid them good night.
