The trains ride in the wrong direction
(Baltimore, Maryland, winter of 1992)
One winter day while visiting my family in Maryland the time came that I needed to get to the bus station to get back to my first Naval Command. I think I had been aboard NCTAMS LANT Norfolk, Virginia for approximately 4 months and 6 mos. in the Navy. Anyone in the service can attest that this is a delicate time in your career where your reputation can precede you further on. This preface is preparing you for the drama that unfolded on that cold, cold day. My mother escorted me down to the platform and stood by me while I verified with the train conductor that this here big shiny thing was indeed my coach back to Virginia. Mom gave me a hug and I jumped aboard the train (leaving out the movie scenes where I wave with tears in my eyes or hang out a window waving like it’s the only train ride I had ever taken). No, I was semi-seasoned to this. I boarded and rushed to find the best seat available. I hadn’t saved the money yet to buy a car so usually on the weekends, after my Friday 12 hour mid watch (1730-0530) or (5:30p.m.-0530a.m.) I would get a ride to the train station and shoot home to see my friends. Anyway, half way through the journey I overhear the family in front of me say that when this train stops in Delaware, blah, blah, blah. Who cares what else was said, my heart stopped when I heard Delaware. I jumped up and immediately began searching for an attendant. After finding the man who punches tickets, I plead my story about how I needed to be going in the opposite direction and that the conductor had assured me that this was indeed the right train. This gentleman was very calm. He gently assured me we could take care of it once we stopped at the next drop off. However, I couldn’t subside the fear caught in my throat as I only had 5 dollars in my pocket and couldn’t afford another train ticket from a further destination. As I sat there in my window seat for what seemed eternity (maybe an hour or two) I started up a little banter with the family ahead of me. I eventually reached a point where I brought up what had happened to me. Immediately they began offering me boxed lunches that they had brought along. I tried to decline as I wasn’t hungry in the least but they became insistent, perhaps thinking it was pride that made me not accept their gracious offering. I took the lunch and sat it in the seat next to me. When I got to the next station the attendant arranged for me to be turned around (for free) and put me on a train in the right direction, but only going as far as Richmond. Mind you, I had to be at work at 0530 for a day shift the following morning and had only 5 dollars in my pocket. Richmond is approx. 2 hours away from Norfolk. We didn’t arrive into Richmond until somewhere around midnight. Whether eternity passed or the lights blinked out, the next part of the story transpires at the train station in Richmond. I arrive to a closed train station. What does this mean??? It means I can’t get another train to Norfolk. I have 5 dollars in my pocket and there’s not a soul in sight I know, or anyone to call with only a five-dollar bill and no change. Suddenly from out of nowhere this lady approaches me and says that she overheard my dilemma on the train and will help me by taking me to the bus station. I told her that I didn’t have the money for a bus but thanks anyway. She grabs my hand and almost literally drags me out to her 280ZX (I love those old cars). Now I’m leery, thinking “what if this lady is crazy or something” but being destitute and willing to move forward as my odds had hit a standstill until she appeared I stumbled with her. We get to the bus station and she pushes through the line and purchases me a bus ticket. While she and the cashier are making their exchanges I ask her, then beg her, to give me her address so that I may send her the money right away as soon as I got back to Norfolk the next day. She wasn’t having any of that. She then goes even further to slap 20 dollars in my hand and walks off. Just like that. I’m standing there with bags in hand looking dumb founded. I felt almost accosted by her forceful kindness. Am I so stubborn that I need to be steam rolled to accept help? (Hmm, perhaps) Anyway, I get on this bus and at this point I have zero concern for the fact that I might be late getting in to work or that I will have had zero sleep. I am just amazed that I am on a bus. As faith would have it, I did make it to work on time. Although tired and mentally exhausted from worrying so excessively, I was there on time like a good Seaman Apprentice.
Please let me remind you that kindness and this sort of reward less giving were exempt in my life story up until this accident. Sure, I had seen it on TV. in shows like “touched by and angel” and such. But this was real life, and this was my hard life.
Well, you think it should have ended there. It didn’t. Here I was sitting at my computer terminal, trying to stay awake and train this Reservist Second Class Petty Officer that was in for two weeks. Suddenly he begins to talk of his worries just as I did with strangers on the train and unfolds a story about how he has no money to eat because he didn’t plan for this reserve obligation. He has spent all of his money on the hotel room that won’t be reimbursed for weeks and hasn’t a penny to his name. Without consideration or hesitation I steamed rolled him as the lady had done at the Richmond train station and slapped 20 dollars into his hand (the same unspent bill). He too tried to resist the help but I refused to take it back. On and on he went about taking money from me. Finally I told him the story. I told him how I came to have 25 dollars in my pocket when I set out on a journey with only five going in the wrong direction from training HIM on this day. Of course you know what he said next… He wanted to pay me back. I asked him to remember this day and pass that 20 bucks on to someone else who was in a jam. Years later that movie came out “Pay it forward” no one but me, that Second Class, and the author of the movie script probably knew how important it was. But surely, I am not the only person in this world who has seen the workings of God in the hardest of times.
Shannon M. Kendall