People I know seem to have popped out of reality, or maybe it is I who has made a quantum shift into a different world. It all began on Friday, August 13, 2010 around 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
The plan was for a quorum of the Car 5 Gang to meet at the Center Café in the Great Hall of Union Station. Trish has circulated the agenda and itinerary for what was supposed to be a grand sendoff for The Princess. She had been a multiyear personality in Car 5 for several years. Princess Carly has celebrated her 21, 22 and 23 birthdays while maintaining her membership in good standing. Several weeks ago she announced that she would be moving to South Carolina to go back to college and finish her undergraduate studies. All our celebrity hopes were dashed when She announced that She could not make the party due to previous engagements.
Bobbert, for one, was incensed and deeply hurt that Princess Carly Muffin would blow off all her commuter family in favor of a few unworthy friends who could see her any time she came home to roost.
The anticipated attendance at the retitled Generic Happy Hour dwindled. Trish and Billy and I confirmed our plans. Sandy was running late with Metro Moments. Three of us were there when Trish got the message from Bobbert that he had forgotten about a medical appointment and would not be coming.
In the end, the four of us held up the ceremonial ritual of a few drinks and a bit of snack while toasting the departure of a friend. So long, Princess.
We all wended our way to the 7:40 train and impressed a few strangers with the camaraderie we four had. At the station we parted our ways for the weekend and each headed home.
Sometime over the weekend the imperceptible shift happened. It might have happened coincident with a flash of light that might have been lightning or a quantum perturbation that sent me into a different world. The small differences were not readily discernable at first. There were hibiscus blossoms blooming in my front yard in Mid-August. The grass was greener or maybe I just thought so.
Monday I caught the train and quietly perused my email on the way into work. When I got back to the evening train and boarded at my usual spot, the wheelchair lift was already in place like they were actually expecting me. I got on and waited for the regular gang to arrive. The train lurched out of the station on time at 5:20 (a rare occurrence). I looked around and nobody I knew was there. Strangers populated Car 5 around me. They were self absorbed and silent. It was ominous and too quiet.
I had heard nothing of vacation or change of work schedules that would account for this change.
I turned to my BlackBerry and thumbed through the late day emails and Twitter messages that proliferate and collect there. At first I was confused. The most unlikely of facts became evident. Somehow, some way, the President of the United States was Black! Over the weekend I was transported into this reality where things are really different. In this reality John McCain didn't win over Hillary Clinton and a whole different Democrat candidate, an African-American from Hawaii or somewhere got enough electoral votes to be President. Wow! America is a hugely different country in this universe.
I spent the entire next day pouring over the Internet to see what all was different in this world. I haven't discovered exactly what it was that stopped it, but Israel hasn't bombed Iran, and a three-way hasn't taken place between Iraq, Israel and Iran. Only the US is fighting useless protracted war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Global financial markets did a meltdown during the Administration of George Bush's son! Son! I couldn't believe it. That man couldn't even talk straight. We made him President. Twice!
Well so many things are different in this reality. I suppose that I will have to get used to it being this way. Having seen what it is like in that other Universe, man have we gotten ourselves into some deep stuff.
When I arrived back at the evening train, there was the lift perfectly placed once again. I boarded and waited for the gang to arrive. 5:20 pm arrived and the train started out of the station with 4 of the 6 mezzanine seats still vacant. Two strangers sat across from me. Once we were underway, the 4 seats were taken by the people passing through from one end of the train to the other. No Car 5 Gang turned up. No messages from them lit up my BlackBerry. They all seem to have been left behind in that other universe.
Throughout the remainder of the week I came to realize just how many things remained the same. The train ran slow due to mechanical problems and other mysterious causes. WMATA scheduled the elevators at Union Station to be out of service for a three month renovation. If this were the universe I had come to know that elevator work would actually take six months and the escalators would be stopped at random intervals due to poor condition. I was beginning to wonder if this reality had a Princess Carly at all or a Big Bob, Trish, Mikey and all the other usual suspects. Maybe I will get shifted back to the old reality or an even better one.
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