Catching the train to New Haven

After shopping in Clinton, a bus took us to Westbrook train station. Susan Wang told us

Westbrook train station

that we could catch the 7:05 pm train to get back to New Haven. There were ten of us. Except two  boys , all of us carried big shopping bags. When we arrived, it was 6:45. It was a small station , with two tracks lying between two platforms. A walkway spans across the platforms. It is strange there was not a single worker there. The station seemed to work on its own.

Track 1

At almost 7:05, a train pulled in. We asked the conductress whether the train would get to New Haven, the answer was no. She did not know when the next train was. But she kindly gave us a schedule of the train. At this moment , Susan Wang ,who had been to Clinton four times , became unsure about which track to take .She said it was track 2, while others say it was track 1. We were arguing with each other when one of us noticed a train coming in track 1.  So , all of us, ten of us, rushed upstairs . A few of us found an elevator , so a few rushed back to get in. You could imagine the fuss of shouting and running up and down. However, the train did not stop at all. It was until then we realized Susan mistook the weekend schedule for weekday.

We began to look at the schedule carefully. A black man smiled to us, telling us the next train would be at 8:16. We smiled back in doubt. Then another train came in , we switched to track 2 again. Again the train did not stop. All of us laughed. How silly and embarrassing we must have looked! We, who try to look ladylike in front of students, rushed up and down ,here and there , out of breath ,with big shopping bags ,again and again!

The inside of the train.

At last we made sure it was track 1 at 8;16, as the black man told us. Finally we got on the train to New Haven!