It felt a little like getting drunk when you know you shouldn’t: accompanied by the vague certainty that current activity would at some point in the future beget discomfiting flashbacks, nonetheless, once earnestly embarked upon, it was hard to stop. Having rung the silver bell as instructed, I let the door close gently behind me.
‘Tom Northgate?’
He eyed me suspiciously. ‘That’s me,’ he said.
‘I was on platform six waiting for the ten forty-two to Cleethorpes.’
He began to rise from behind his desk, then stopped, ‘Yes?’
‘Your colleague told me it was delayed by about ten minutes, but it was leaving from platform six.’
‘Oh yes.’
‘I was still there at eleven o’clock.’
‘Yes?’
‘Your colleague made a phone call and then told me it had left from platform eight.’
He was still trapped between sitting and standing behind his desk. He sat, then reluctantly prodded a few keys on his terminal. ‘It didn’t go from platform six you see,’ he said.
‘Your colleague told me that I was on the right platform, that it was just going to be delayed by ten minutes.’
‘Yes.’
I sized him up. It said ‘Station Manager’ on his plastic lapel badge. His eyes were moist.
‘When I asked her again, she made a phone call, and then she told me that the platform had been altered.’
‘Yes.’
‘There’s not another train for an hour. I’ve come from London. I’m going to miss my meeting. It will have been a wasted day.’
He prodded a few more keys. ‘It went from platform eight, you see. There’s another one in an hour.’
‘That really isn’t good enough. I’d like to, how do I go about having my ticket refunded? My whole day has been wasted.’
‘But you were on the wrong platform, there’s nothing I can do you see.’ He held his palms out to say: look at my hands, they are empty.
‘The platform was changed.’
He sighed, then picked up the telephone, dialled, waited. ‘Hiya. Alright. It’s Tom. Yeah alright thanks. Yeah. Yeah, alright thanks. Yeah. It is. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yeah. Yes. Anyway, reason I’m ringing is, the Cleethorpes train… did it? Oh, was it? Oh, right. It did. I see. You made an announcement. Oh right. I see. Yeah. But you made an announcement? Yeah. Yes. Oh, right. Okay then. But you made an announcement. Good. You made one. Yes. Yeah, that was all really. Yeah. Yeah. No. I know. Right. Thanks, you. Bye. Yeah. Bye. Bye, bye.’ He put the phone down.
‘They made an announcement,’ he said.
‘I’ve missed my connection. I’m going to miss my meeting. It’s a waste of a whole day.’
‘There’s nothing I can do I’m sorry. That was the signal box. They made an announcement. You see. They make the announcements, the signal box.’
‘There wasn’t any announcement.’
‘They just said, they made an announcement. There’s nothing I can do I’m sorry.’
‘I was stood on the platform.’
‘Yes.’
‘I asked your colleague about the train to Cleethorpes.’
‘Yes.’
‘Who was on the platform as well.’
‘Yes.’
‘The platform for the ten forty-two to Cleethorpes.’
‘Right.’
‘She told me I was on the right platform.’
‘Yes.’
‘Afterwards, she had to ring someone up to find out there had been an alteration.’
‘That’ll be the signal box, she would have rung the signal box.’
‘After it had gone. I was on the platform waiting for the train.’
‘Yes.’
‘I didn’t know about the alteration.’
‘Yes.’
‘Your colleague on the platform didn’t know about the alteration.’
‘Yes.’
‘You didn’t know about the alteration.’
‘Well, no.’
‘There was no announcement.’
‘They said they made an announcement.’
‘There was no announcement.’
‘Well everyone else managed to catch it.’
‘What?’
‘Everybody else managed to catch the train.’
‘I’m sorry, what?’
He primped a little. ‘Everybody else managed to make that train.’
I felt my heart rate increase, that giddiness, that cusp of abandon, ‘How do you know?’
‘How do I know what?’
‘That anyone else managed to catch the train?’
‘Well they’re not here, they’re not complaining, are they?’
I heard the door open behind me. ‘For the money you charge,’ I said to him, ‘You offer pisspoor service.’
I turned. A pasty guard with a goatee beard and clear enthusiasm hair products was holding the door open with a look of distaste.
I swayed through onto the icy platform, and he let it close behind me.
