Confessions of a Train Passenger

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[This story is based upon a conversation I overheard the on the train to work in 2011].

“Hi Wendy. I’ve not seen you on this train for a while?”

“Oh, hi Kylie. Yeah, I’ve been at the branch in Slough for the past few months. I could drive there in twenty minutes from home. Now I’m working in Reading for the next six months. The assistant manager is off on maternity leave. So here I am on the commuter express that stops at every station!”

“How are your kids?”

“Davy is a real handful. All he wants to do is play football.”

Kylie giggled.

“Is he any good?”

Wendy laughed.

“Just like his dad. Two very bad left feet. Still wants to play for Chelsea though…”

“Did you hear about Barbara?”

“Barbara?

“Barbara Dodds. You must remember her?”

“Oh yeah. What has she done now?”

“She’s left Andrew. Taken the kids and moved back to her parents.”

“Wow. That was a surprise. Was Andrew having an affair? He never struck me as the sort to look at another woman. He only ever had eyes for Barbara.”

Kylie sniggered.
“No. Nothing like that.”

She leans forward and whispers, “Now that their kids are away at University, apparently she comes home from work one day and finds him wearing her clothes and wanting to be called Andrea.”

Wendy sat there stunned to silence.

She had to bite her lip very hard.

Then she sighed, “I’ve heard of a few cases like that.”

“The poor woman. Finding out that she’d been living with a poofter and a fairy all these years.”

Wendy sat in silence for a few seconds.

“What about Doreen Pace last year? Isn’t that just as bad?”

“Oh. I’d forgotten about her. Is she still shacked up with… what’s her name?”

“Sandra Flowers. Yeah and their six kids. They are still together, them and their six kids. Just because they got tired of living with men.”

“What a world we live in eh?”

The train slowed down for the stop at Reading.

“Bye Wendy,” said Kylie, “You and your hubby should come around for lunch next Sunday?”

Wendy didn’t reply but grinned back as a sort of non-committal maybe.

The last thing she wanted was for Kylie to meet her partner given that her ‘hubby’ was now a woman.

Wendy got off the train. As she stepped onto the platform, she wiped the smile off her face. She was on a mission. As she left the station, she got her phone out of her handbag and dialled a number.

“Hi Darling.”

“Yes, I’m fine. I ran into Kylie Adams on the train to work.”

“Yeah, that’s her. She told me a story about the Dodd’s. Barbara and Andrew Dodd, they use to live on Taplow Drive in Burnham. If you recall, we met them at the school parents evening last year.”

“Yes. That’s right, that’s them.”

“No, nothing like that. According to Kylie, Andrew now wants to be called Andrea and apparently, she’s left him. I thought Andrea might need a bit of support from you. After all we do know what she’s going through don’t we darling?”

She hung up the phone and walked off down Station Hill towards her office with a spring in her step and a smile on her face.

Life had been rather good since her Husband had come out and started living as a woman. It was as if a great weight had been lifted from his or rather her shoulders. Now, they only argued about what colours to wear when going out together and their love life had gone in directions that she'd never dreamed about.

[the end]
This story was written after hearing a conversation on a train to Reading back in 2011 when I was working in the town. Two fellow passengers were talking about the affairs that their husbands were having as if it was something that happened every day. They got quite an audience.
I thought I’d published it before but I found that I hadn’t so here it is.
Oh, and this is Reading, UK and not some other place by that name.

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Comments

As Yogi may have said...

erin's picture

"You can hear a lot of things, just by listening."

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

It is truly amazing how many

It is truly amazing how many people will be in a conversation and be completely dense as to who may be around them and can hear what is being said. Further, if a person is a friend or person who knows one or both persons in the conversation; what they can discover about them based on their speak or comments can say volumes. Sadly, I do believe many lives have been ruined unknowingly by people just as these two; because of NOT considering just who may be near them or seated behind or in front of them.

Poor Andrea,

This story ends badly for too many in real life.

Living As A Woman

joannebarbarella's picture

If only I had the circumstances and the guts to do it full time.

Assistance on the way

Jamie Lee's picture

How easy is it to run when a situation changes in such a way which is different than those which are expected. Instead of offering support or comfort "I" and its own self determinations become more important than the one in need.

And it's people like Wendy who are there to offer the support which was withheld by the one, or ones, who should have provided support. How will Barbara feel if the time comes and her partner bails on her instead of giving her the comfort and support she needs? Because she only thought of herself when Andrew needed her, should someone walk out on her it's possible she won't see what hurt she caused Andrew while she is hurting. She won't see that hurt is hurt regardless the wrapping.

Others have feelings too.

The eternal truth.

To thine own self be true and it shall follow as night unto day, that thou can't be false to others.

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