Episode 45: Amtrak Train: Navigating Track Delays with the Baby — 5,000 Core English Words

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Chapter forty-five. A journey by train.

Leo is eight months old, and he has never met the woman who raised his mother. Emma's aunt lives in a cottage four hours to the south. Driving with a baby is hard, so Ryan and Emma decide to take the train. It is the first time the three of them have travelled together.

Listen to how to buy tickets at a station, understand an announcement about a delay, and talk to the conductor on board.

Agent: Good morning. Where are you travelling today?

Ryan: Good morning. Two adults and a baby to Cedar Springs, please.

Agent: One way or round trip?

Ryan: Round trip. We're coming back on Sunday.

Agent: What time would you like to leave today?

Ryan: The next train, if there are seats.

Agent: That's the ten fifteen. There are seats in coach, or I can assist you with business class for thirty dollars more each.

Emma: What's the difference?

Agent: Basically, more leg room, and a quieter car. With a baby, most parents prefer coach. There's more room to walk around.

Emma: Then coach is fine. Do we need a ticket for him?

Agent: Children under two ride free, on your lap. If you'd like him to have his own seat, it's half price.

Ryan: On our lap is fine. Can we bring a stroller on board?

Agent: Yes. Fold it, and put it in the luggage area at the end of the car. If you need help, ask the conductor.

Ryan: And coming back? What time on Sunday?

Agent: There's a two forty and a five ten.

Emma: The two forty, please. He's better in the afternoon.

Agent: That comes to one hundred and thirty-six dollars. How would you like to pay?

Ryan: By card.

Agent: Here are your tickets. Your train leaves from track four. It's showing on time at the moment. Boarding starts fifteen minutes before departure.

Ryan: Thank you. Is there somewhere to change a baby?

Agent: There's a family restroom next to the waiting area, on your left.

At ten o'clock, they are standing on the platform with a stroller, two bags, and a baby who is extremely interested in pigeons. Then a voice comes from the speaker above them.

Attention, passengers. Train one seventeen to Cedar Springs, scheduled to depart at ten fifteen, is delayed approximately forty minutes, due to a signal problem. We apologize for the delay.

Ryan: Forty minutes. Typically.

Emma: It's fine. It's only forty minutes.

Ryan: It's obvious what happens next. Forty becomes sixty. Sixty becomes ninety. I've read the definition of "approximately."

Emma: Your attitude is not helping. Hold your son.

Ryan: Excuse me. I'm sorry to bother you. Do you have any information about the ten fifteen?

Conductor: The signal's being repaired now. A wire was damaged overnight. We expect to leave around eleven. It's a safety issue, so we can't move until they've finished.

Ryan: If it's delayed more than an hour, can we get a refund?

Conductor: You can claim one online, or change to a later train at no charge. But I'd stay. Once we move, we'll make up some time.

Emma: Is there somewhere warm to wait? It's frozen out here, and he's small.

Conductor: The waiting room is heated. I'll come and get you myself when it's time to board. Families go first.

Emma: That's very kind. Thank you.

Ryan: I'm pleased. And a little ashamed. He was nice, and I was ready for a conflict.

Emma: You always are. It's predictable. Come on. Let's find coffee.

At eleven ten, the train pulls in. The conductor waves them forward, lifts the stroller himself, and they climb into a long, bright car.

Emma: Excuse me. Is this seat taken?

Stranger: No, please. Go ahead. I'll move my coat.

Emma: Thank you. He might make some noise. I apologize in advance.

Stranger: Don't worry about it. I've had four of my own. Is it his first train?

Emma: His first everything.

Conductor: Tickets, please. Thank you. Two adults and one little passenger. Cedar Springs. That's the fifth stop. We should arrive at about three, with the delay.

Ryan: Is there a café car?

Conductor: Two cars forward. Sandwiches, coffee, snacks. It's open for the entire trip.

Ryan: And is there a quiet car? For later, if he sleeps?

Conductor: The last car. No phone calls, and low voices. But a sleeping baby is welcome anywhere.

Emma: Can I warm a bottle somewhere?

Conductor: Ask at the café. They'll give you a cup of hot water. Enjoy the ride.

The train begins to move, smooth and slow at first, then faster. The city descends behind them. Leo presses his face to the window, amazed, and squeezes his father's finger.

Emma: What are you reading? You've been on the same column for twenty minutes.

Ryan: The paper. I'm confused by it. It's one long scandal. A council chief is accused of fraud. An investigator found a trace of money in a fake agency. His attorney swears it's all legal. A union is on strike. There's a march for voting rights, and protesters outside the county administration.

Emma: And the rest?

Ryan: Worse. A gang robbed a store with a weapon. An arrest for murder. A bomb that didn't go off, thank goodness. A story about an old bomber plane. A piece on depression and suicide among young men, which was hard to read.

Emma: Ryan. Put it down.

Ryan: I want to understand the world he's going to live in.

Emma: That isn't the world. That's the part that makes the news. Nobody reports on a train full of people being kind to a baby.

Ryan: That's true. The lady across the aisle gave him a biscuit. A man offered to hold him while I got coffee. I didn't let him, but he offered.

Emma: That's civilization too. Probably more than the cabinet and the scandals.

Ryan: I thought about my jury duty, actually. I never told you all of it. It was a case about a builder who cheated an old couple. There wasn't much evidence at first, only a clue or two. The jury argued for two days. One man wanted to go home, and one woman would not let anybody hurry.

Emma: What happened?

Ryan: She was right. She made us read everything again. In the end we could prove it, and identify where the money went. Twelve strangers, and nobody had any authority except what we gave each other. It was slow and basic, and I think it was democracy. I've had more respect for it ever since.

Emma: You came home very quiet that week.

Ryan: I was impressed. And a little scared of how easy it would be to ruin someone's life by being lazy.

Emma: That's the education I want for him. Not the facts. That.

At three o'clock, the train stops at a small station with flowers in boxes. A tall woman of seventy-five is standing on the platform, perfectly straight, with her arms already open.

Emma: There she is. Aunt Grace!

Aunt Grace says nothing at first. She looks at Leo for a long moment. Then she takes him, with the confidence of someone who has held two hundred children, and he looks back at her without a sound.

Emma: She says he has my grandfather's eyes. And that we're late.

Ryan: The train was late. Tell her it was the signal.

Emma: She says a monk could have walked here faster. She's joking. I think.

The cottage is exactly as Emma described it: a small white house, a big garden, and an old slide. In the evening, they sit outside with tea.

Emma: She wants to know everything. I've told her about the studio, and the Saturday class, and your singing.

Ryan: Not the singing.

Emma: Especially the singing. She says it's the most impressive thing about you.

Ryan: What did she do, all those years, with the school? I've always wanted to ask. How do you keep something alive for three decades?

Emma: I asked her once. She said, "Consistency. Not brilliance. Be consistent. I showed up every day, for every child, in every circumstance. In a good era and a bad one."

Ryan: Annually, for thirty years.

Emma: She was divorced young. Previously, she had wanted to dance in the capital. Instead she came back here, to nursing her mother, and then me. She never treated it as a restriction. She said nobody imposed it. She chose it.

Ryan: I'd like to possess a tenth of that.

Emma: You do. You practice-drive to hospitals. It's related.

Ryan: That's the nicest thing anyone has said about my lists.

Emma: Look at them. He's asleep on her. Entirely. He doesn't do that with anybody.

Ryan: It's magical. One glance, and he knew. An instant.

Emma: I used to think that independence meant going away. Now I think it means having somewhere to come back to. She gave me that. We'll give it to him.

Ryan: A prime piece of wisdom, from a garden chair. Should I write it down?

Emma: No. Just endure the quiet for once. Listen. No machinery. No transportation. Just an old house, and three generations who obey nobody tonight.

Ryan: The rating for this trip is ten. Even with the delay. I swear, I'd demonstrate it in court. A championship weekend.

Emma: And the removal of your newspaper helped.

Ryan: It did. It's illegal to be this happy. It has no substance, and it unites everything.

Emma: You've been reading too many columns. A decade from now, you'll remember the scary forty minutes on the platform, and you'll laugh.

Ryan: I already am.

That is the end of chapter forty-five. A late train, a kind conductor, and an old woman on a platform with her arms open.

Keep these with you: "One way or round trip?" "Which track does it leave from?" "Is the train on time?" "Is this seat taken?" "Tickets, please."

In the next chapter, the last one, Leo is growing fast, and it is time to visit his first school.

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