bkdelong

Very strange evening last night. I managed to leave my office the perfect time to amble to the Subway and arrive at North Station with enough time to hang out and listen to Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" which I had originally borrowed from the library but soon realized the "movie in my head" power-imagination I had would best be triggered if someone were reading it and I could close my eyes on the Commuter Rail Train home. I wanted to "read" it before the movie came out.

So there I was at North Station, listening to Neil when out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of something big falling off the platform onto the rail. When my "power imagination" gets going, I often have to wait a few beats because who the hell knows if I see what I think I see.

I wait a few minutes and look around. Despite hundreds of people staring at the platforms and schedule no one reacts. Maybe I'm seeing things. So I go over to the Platform 5/6 door and look out the window. Definitely looks like a body. I walk out onto the platform and carefully crane over the side to see better- yup. Pretty sure at this point.

No one's moved. I see what looks like an engineer on the next platform over and go out to meet him. I thought about yelling but thought I'd feel stupid - too nervous to go down onto the track myself. Luckily, the guy thought he saw someone too and was getting out of the engine to check. So he goes over and repeats the "viewing" steps I do and runs off.

Still no activity. Finally, a female Transit Police officer comes onto the platform looking concerned. I point out to where I can see the body and she starts running. Another male officer joins her walking a bit more slowly and looking irritated. The radios must have gone off because engineers, conductors and linesmen (?) start converging on the area or getting out of their trains to peer over at the scene.

The 5:55 train is announced on the same platform, opposite side. I walk out to the officers and yell down asking if they want a statement since I seemed to have been the only one who noticed. The male officer looked at me not really believing I saw it and said "No, he's going to be fine". The victim appeared to be walking with the assistance of the two officers.

I got on my train and turned Neil back on.

It was the strangest thing. When I played the moment back in my mind, I saw what looked like something cartwheeling over the side of the platform and dropping dead-weight. The problem is he wasn't lying out in the middle of the tracks. I don't know if he was peering over the side but he ended up under the 2ft overhang against the wall of the platform and not obvious to the eye.

Part of me wonders where he came from - I just don't remember seeing him out there. Did he fall off the awning for the platform? Did he fall from even higher, slide off the awning and flip over under the overhang? I just don't know.

I also wondered if I should have moved faster. Should the Red Cross part of me have raised the alarm? Should I have gone down there and assessed my ABCs like the First Aider/CPR trained part of me should have. I figured the MBTA would be out there in force in seconds. But I guess it is true that they have no cameras out there. How much did they just friggen spend redoing North Station?

Part of me looks at the possible security breaches at North Station and cringes. When the 7:29am Salem train arrives in Boston about 8am there are 2-3 other trains that arrive at the same time. About half of the people go right and half go left out the back to the Green Line and it BOTTLENECKS. Huge amounts of people moving very slowly - moreso since there's huge scaffolding erected outside the side of the building.

Did anyone else hear about this, see the gathering after police were alerted or see what happened after the 5:55pm train left?