“Be careful, it’s quite slippery.”
“I will. You taking photos?”
“Yeah, you?”
“Nah, i’m hoping to see a ghost.”
The man’s camera flash echoed through the tunnel.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I’ve been here before, but didn’t see anything. How long have you been in here?”
“I only just arrived.”
The abandoned train line was still and quiet. It was beautiful in the day and ominous at night. People often came to take photos or go on guided ghost tours.
“Why do you want to see a ghost?”
“Because I’ve never seen one before.”
The flash echoes down the tunnel.
“What will you do when you find one?
“Probably run away.”
“Ah, so you are just thrill seeking.”
“Maybe…”
The flash echoes.
The woman slips on some mud and grabs the strangers shoulder to prevent herself falling down.
“I’m sorry, it’s so slippery.”
“It’s okay. How far down are you going to go?”
The darkness was thickening around them as they walked.
“As far as I have to to see a ghost.”
The man stopped in his tracks.
“Well, you had better stop walking.”
The tunnel was silent but for a few drips of water. The mancontinued:
“This tunnel used to have trains passing through every hour full of different people. People in the rat race on the way to work, old men on their way to see their granddaughters and young children on their way to school.”
Darkness.
“For a time they were all together in the same carriage passing through the same tunnel. On late mornings they would have to run to make their train and on late evenings they would rest their heads agains the glass window and stare out into the darkness of this tunnel.”
The man turns his camera off.
“We are the only ghosts in this tunnel.”
– By Randall Evans.
The Vile Mint 
Nice piece! It’s very well written.
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Thank you 🙂
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NIce article! The train tunnel is unique to me, because you do not know where the tracks will go to…as I see from your image.
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Nice! It reminds me of the very narrow path to rebirth or life anew!!
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Love the photos, especially the top one. Thanks for stopping by my blog and the Like!
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You’re welcome !
Are you really a Zebra ? That’s impressive !
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I am a medical “zebra.” That means I am part of the 1% of the population that has such an unusual disease that no one can diagnose it for a long time. In med school, doctors are often taught, “If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras!” In other words, if a person comes into the doctors office, and their illness seems to be pneumonia, then they probably actually have pneumonia, rather than some weird, rare fungal lung infection. Doctors are trained to look to the obvious illness, rather than the extremely rare ones. Thus those of us with rare diseases often get more and more ill because no one looks for the illness that affects, say, only 0.07% of the population.
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Has blogging been therapeutic ? I can’t imagine what it’s like to give up a career over something you can’t control. You must see things completely differently to your old self.
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Not completely differently. I still am essentially the person I always have been. But losing so many aspects of my life because of my disease has indeed been unbelievably hard. “Unbelievably” because repeatedly, I think I have come to a point of equilibrium with it, and then something hits out of the blue and I feel overwhelmed with grief once again. Thus, the post “Loss.”
Thank you for asking if blogging has been therapeutic. Yes, it has been. It has given me a chance to write once again, and more recently to get back into photography. Most especially, I try to write posts and put up photographs that will engage difficult issues, start thoughtful conversations, help people see things from a new perspective, offer beauty, and perhaps convey hope. An audacious goal, I know, but these are all things I tried to impart in my classroom.
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Well, just like the classroom, the hope you inspire doesn’t reach everyone at once, but it’s 100% worth it. One random person will stumble upon your blog and be filled with your words.
Keep up the blog, I’m a fan 🙂
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Thank you so much for your support and encouragement. It means a lot!
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