A "memory" from my childhood...

One day, on a Thursday afternoon, during summer vacation, me and my sister Martha were pulling our red wagon down the railroad tracks. It was tough pulling the wagon, but we took it along anyway because we were collecting rocks in it. I turned around at one point and saw a train farther down the tracks heading our way. We were nowhere near a bridge, but that scene from Stand by Me played through my head. "Martha," I said, "there's a train coming. We need to get off the tracks." Martha looked back and said, "Oh, we don't need to get off yet. Wait for it to get a little closer." I said, "Okay."

A minute later, it was much closer. It was moving fast. "Martha," I said, "we need to get off now." "You get off the tracks," Martha said, "I'm going to beat that train." Martha was a fast runner. She always beat me and every child in our neighborhood in every race. If she had lived long enough, she probably would have made it to the Olympics! I tried telling Martha she couldn't outrun a train, but Martha was stubborn. Once her mind was made up to do something, do it she would!

Well, that train kept getting closer and closer, and I kept yelling "Faster, Martha, faster!" And Martha poured on the speed, but Martha couldn't outrun that train. There was this little projection on the front of the train. I don’t know what it was for, but it was about at the level of Martha's bottom. That little projection hit her and flung her forward a few feet and Martha completely vanished. It's like, she was there one second, and then she wasn't. After the train passed, I looked and looked for her, but couldn't find her. Martha had done strange things before, so I wasn't too worried. And I was still quite young at that time. Not knowing what else to do, I went home and told my parents what had happened. They called the police. My parents told me they were looking for Martha, and I didn’t understand why. I mean, she vanished! How could they find her? (As I said, I was quite young at that time. I didn’t realize how very differently adult minds and children's minds worked.)

Well, like I said, this was on a Thursday. I went back to the tracks on the following Wednesday (it was kind of a boring weekend without my sister Martha), and played. I looked under logs for toads and snakes and stuff, caught some crickets and grasshoppers to feed to my pet turtles, and then, all of a sudden, I heard this loud howling! There Martha was, rubbing her bottom, running along the railroad tracks, and screaming like a banshee!

Now, I had heard about somebody getting knocked into the middle of next week, but that's the only time I've ever seen it happen!