The Commute Home
Exiting Bethesda station yesterday, my BlackBerry finally attained a signal and proceeded to go nuts. It practically danced in my hand as IP and I boarded the bus that would take us home, family, friends and co-workers all demanding to know that we were all right. All told, it took us 40 minutes extra to get home which, given the magnitude of what happened, wasn’t a long time at all. We’ve endured longer delays just sitting in Metro Center.
When I had entered the system shortly before 5pm, I knew something was up on the west side of the Red; announcements were being made about Friendship Heights. Getting to Metro Center, I was greeted by a hoard of people waiting for trains. Very little information was being conveyed at this point (around 5:30pm by now) at Metro Center. Being underground and without Verizon phones, IP and I had no idea what was going on; we thought there was just a derailed train right outside of Fort Totten. We wondered why they didn’t just single-track on the unaffected side. We debated whether or not to go to Fort Totten via the Green line and then take a bus home. From the sound of it, we’d be stuck at Fort Totten. We decided to walk to Union Station to see if anything had cleared up by the time we got there; right before exiting Metro Center, I had a sudden stroke of genius brought on by the fact that something about the situation wasn’t sitting right: why not take the Red line in the opposite direction and then take the bus home? It had the potential of being quicker given that we had no idea what we’d do once we got to Fort Totten (though I’m unsure we would’ve gotten that far even on the Green).
The ride on the west side of the line was slow; at Farragut North we were held for about 10 minutes. The operator told us there were situations on both sides of the line; trouble outside of Friendship Heights and a “black, black” situation going on outside of Fort Totten. IP and I furrowed our brows at each other, while others around us heard the situation was “black box.” “He’s not saying ‘box’,” IP hissed at me. At around Friendship Heights, a guy sitting in a seat nearby us exclaimed and held up his BlackBerry. “This is what’s happening,” he said, eyes wide. I only caught a brief glimpse of the picture, but it looked like the side of a Metro car had collapsed in on itself. It must’ve been the grainy quality and the distance, but my first thought was that something must’ve hit the train on the side, not that one train was on top of another.
At Bethesda, we exited and a bus appeared almost instantly. We were ferried home without charge, my BlackBerry buzzing impatiently the entire time. My boss left me a message; a co-worker shrilly demanded that I call her immediately; my Big Brother A left me a collected message, his voice typically drawling, asking me to call our mom when I got home. (Big Bro A and my dad were the only ones who remained pretty calm; I last talked to Big Bro A at 4:55PM; the accident happened shortly thereafter. Both he and my dad knew there was no way I was anywhere near those trains, just stuck underground. My mom recognized that side of the line as ours, so she appropriately freaked out, but she didn’t sound half as bad as my co-worker did.) My sister sent me a text. Another co-worker left a message on IP’s cell; when I explained to him that I had included it in the emergency contact info for me at work, he mused that he should probably do the same, then asked me to text her. When we got home, there were more messages and phone calls; I recognized my supervisor’s number, my brother’s, and my dad’s. Messages kept rolling in well into the night; I sent back responses as soon as I could, letting people know we were okay. My little brother called, on his way back from Florida, to make sure I was okay; I told him I was and told him to drive safely.
Today I was told to work from home in order to avoid what would be a hellish commute. A friend of mine gave IP a ride into town—while it would’ve been great to also have him telecommute, he has a conference he has to get to today (to whip some reticent people into shape). And now here I sit, drinking coffee, writing and reading the news, feeling pretty loved. I was nowhere near any danger, but many people were concerened. For this cynical, hard-hearted chick, it was pretty touching.
Thoughts go out to those who lost loved ones, and speedy recoveries to those who were injured.