All Aboard the Holiday Express!

Dear Glob,

A couple of Holiday seasons ago, I was in the city running errands. After a long day of shopping and Starbuck coffee in the festive red cups, I hopped into the 14^th Street A/C/E station on my way back to Rockland. Although the MTA isn’t known for its punctuality, this particular train was taking a stubbornly long time to arrive. As a typical impatient New Yorker, I hovered at the edge of the platform, leaning forward every couple of minutes hoping to see the headlights of the next arriving train. Cold and tired from the day’s hustle and bustle, I perked up immediately upon hearing an unusually high pitched whistle echoing through the subway tunnels. People soon began to gather along the platform, and out of habit I leaned forward once again to steal an early glimpse of our train. To my surprise, instead of the everyday gritty metallic subway car, an old fashion wood paneled train began to enter the station. I quickly took a step back, afraid I having a holiday hallucination, but the Christmas train kept a’coming, blowing its festive high pitched whistle. As the first car came closer, I noticed a big wreath hanging from its windshield and a conductor, wearing a Polar Express-like blue uniform, waving happily to us passengers on the platform. The following cars were adorn with bright red bows and sparkling lights, all with the same beautiful golden brown paneling as the first. Swept up with the Spirit of Christmas, I waved back to the other conductors thinking I was the luckiest girl in the world to catch a ride on the Holiday Express, albeit a bit weird and random. Much to my dismay, the train never slowed its pace and with one last friendly “Toot Toot” of farewell, the train whizzed past the station, not admitting any passengers aboard. I stood there dumbstruck watching the train and all its Christmas cheer disappear into the darkness.

I don’t know exactly when I snapped out of my trance, but I quickly looked around to make sure someone else had witnessed this feat of Holiday Magic. People all around were rubbing their eyes in disbelief, shocked at what had just happened. I locked eyes with an elderly woman next to me who nodded her head in confirmation that she too had seen the Phantom Holiday Train. On noticing the disappointment in my face, she offered me a little shrug of condolence, suggesting that maybe next time the Christmas train rolled along, we would have seats in the first car... And not only would we have comfy seats cushioned with down, the conductors would also be passing out steaming cups of eggnog as children took turns sounding the high pitched whistle. A choir of passengers would sing all of our holiday requests, as we happily enjoyed the long journey up North... Our shared reverie was soon disturbed by a screeching A express train coming to a halt. Sadly, I waved goodbye to the old lady and boarded the train back to reality. Once I got home, I tried to tell anyone who would listen about my otherworldly subway experience, but everyone rolled their eyes with doubt and dismissed my story as another silly Chewie fantasy.

Years later, I was walking into a subway station when I saw it – a poster with a picture of the same Holiday Train from so long ago. The poster advertised when and where the train would make an appearance and offered rides to passengers who happened to be there at the right time and place. I knew people wouldn’t believe me without hard cold proof, so I ripped the poster down and brought it back to my apartment. My then roommate, Tree, finally conceded to the truth of my Christmas Train story, and allowed me frame and hang the poster in our living room as testament to its existence. Yes, it felt good to be vindicated, but a part of me genuinely enjoyed the time when everyone thought I was crazy… and I believed it was magic.