As I was saying, fools,  we were fools.  Amongst the nine people in the car with us: a cute, elderly gentleman and his wife, who had a tracheotomy tube, an older woman who seemed to be the wife's mother, and this skinny as a rail, elderly white woman.  Across from us was a large woman, who within minutes of pulling out of the station fell asleep, her head wedged between her seat and the window.

A few small snores escaped her mouth, but,  nothing overwhelming.  She was in it for the long haul, all the way to Chicago and she looked as if she had already been traveling for awhile.  

We settled in pulling down our tray tables, grabbing books, leaning back as best we could, since the seats in the lower cars do not lower as much as in the upper cars.  I was stoned on cold medicine laced with codeine, antibiotics, and decongestants, trying to beat down bronchitis.
 

Which, in itself was a good thing.  I don't handle traveling well, unless I'm in the driver's seat.  Of course, I couldn't convince the train engineer to allow me to drive, so, I was stuck, butt to butt on a reeling, squeaky train.

It wasn't long before I crashed hard.  Sitting upright,  my head fell straight forward, dropping my glasses onto the floor (HEY Suzy, go get your glasses adjusted).  Tony placed them on my table and I was out.

Until this moist, raspy, gurgling sound woke me.  The woman with the tracheaotomy.  Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that it's a medical problem, but, her tube was in dreadful need of suctioning.  And she never bothered to suction it for the entire 14 hours she was on the train with us.

Gurgle, a small wheeze of air, gurgle.  FOURTEEN HOURS she did this.  I so wanted to suction the damn thing myself.  I've worked with trach patients, I've suctioned tubes, they shouldn't sound like her's did.  When they get to that point, you are not able to pull in enough air.

Eventually the drugs overcame me and I was out again.  Now, I snore on the best day, I was sick as a dog, the train was hot and dry; I snored worse.

Tony stood guard over me.  The other people in the car were not happy about my snoring.  I couldn't stay awake for love nor money, what could he do?  Well, stop people from trying to wake me.  The loudmouth woman, assuming Tony was asleep, stood up and leaned over him in an attempt to wake me.

He snapped his head towards her and she stumbled out "Are you two related?" 

"She's my wife" he replied.

"Oh, I thought you were brother and sister."

Yeah,  brother and sister who call one another honey and babe, who hold hands and kiss.  Sure, we're brother and sister, bitch.  

As the medicine wore off, I woke up, drank some soda, and glanced around.  The cute, older gentleman was talking to his seatmate, the small white woman.  He was telling her how hungry he was, that he wanted a cheeseburger.

She offered to get one for him, as sweet as could be.  He was telling her all sorts of things, in this gentle voice.  As their conversation went on, you could tell he had mental issues.  He was confused, mixing things up, not quite there.  I'm sure he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Eventually, he got his cheeseburger, ate, and fell asleep.

Oh, but, not for long.  Loud Mouth was up and leering at people again. This time poking at my wheelchair (a rented one, don't touch it woman) and asking "Who's wheelchair is this?"  

"Mine" enough said, right?

No, not for her she questioned me about why I had a chair, I had walked to the bathroom.  Of course, leaning on my cane the 10 steps to the bathroom.  I didn't bother to explain myself choosing to ignore her.

This is how they ride went for hours, with only one trip the the smoker car (it was much too far for me to walk with no way to use my chair, I ended up getting off at each stop to smoke.)

Hour after hour, I dosed in and out, popped pills here and there,  poor Tony remaining awake, to stop people from harassing me.  

Eventually the loudmouth and her companions got off the train, I think somewhere in Ohio, but, I'm not positive about that.  Then we watched the sweet woman turn into a pyscho.  

She was talking to another woman, telling her how lucky she was to have someone to talk with, fell asleep, then awoke to scream about the woman stealing from her, "What did you steal from me? Why did you steal from me? Stop stealing from me?" she ranted until the woman moved.

Then we heard,  ice cubes dropping into a glass,  the tinkle of liquid.  I realized we had heard that time and time again.

Obviously the woman was sitting there drinking her ass off.  The more she drank the stranger she got, until the funniest thing I have ever seen happened.

She stood up, declared how hot it was, and started stripping.  Off came her shirt and into the floor.  Tony and I just stared at one another.  

She started to pull her bra straps down when the car attendant stepped in and stopped her.  Luckily her stop was the next one and there were no further outbursts from that side of the car.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, we pulled into South Bend, Indiana, right on time, loaded Angie's car with our stuff and headed to her apartment.

And that's where I'll stop for now.  
 

Smile, 

Suzy