malaise*lithium

Through a long and not terrifically interesting series of misfortunes on the way home from work, I missed my MAX train. But I only stood at the station in front of the library for a moment before I noticed my train just two stops further down the line. I was on my bicycle, and quickly estimated that I could catch it five or six stops down the line and get home sooner than if I were to just wait 15 minutes for the next train to arrive.

I dropped my bike into the street and set out after the train. It was a quick roll at first because of the grade, but I had to stop for traffic twice. I nearly caught the train at the Yamhill District but the doors closed just before I arrived. Undaunted, I swooped through the crosswalk and continued my pursuit.The next several stops after Yamhill board on the right side of the train, and because of the tracks I was stuck on the opposite side. But when the tracks curved around onto First Street, the angle was steep enough that I could cross them on my bike. The train had slowed to make the turn and I caught up with it handily, riding just alongside it in the street.

I matched my speed to that of the train. Inside it, a few passengers were watching me. If the door had been open I could have grabbed on–I could have stepped right inside. Exhilarated and frightened, I remembered all the scenes in westerns where a man catches a steam train on horseback. The parallel between that and myself, catching an electric train on a bicycle struck me so suddenly that I burst into laughter. No longer quite in control of my breathing, I had to struggle to keep up with the train, and began to laugh still harder.

The passengers on the train looked away. They didn’t want to draw the attention of the madman following them. Perhaps to their dismay I was able to keep pace with the train until the next stop, where I dismounted my trusty steed. I boarded the train feeling for all the world like a pistolero –notwithstanding, of course, my helmet and funny shoes.