Barry's last ride. (standard:other, 1626 words)
Author: Arthur Randall	Added: Apr 07 2003	Views/Reads: 3315/2145	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A young man who always loved trains gets a job with the public transit system and gets a job driving the subway trains. Then one day he had an experience that put him in the psychiatric hospital. Learn what happened on Barry's last ride.

Barry's Final Ride. 

Dr. Lexington looked at the chart as he walked into the patient's room. 
His newest patient had been in the hospital for three weeks and there 
was still no change in his condition.  Dr. Lexington had just graduated 
for medical school a few months ago and he was still new to the 
psychiatric field. 

The patient's name is Barry Williams and before he arrived at the
hospital, he drove the subway trains for the city public transit.  He 
worked there for five years, up until three weeks ago when someone 
jumped in front of the train that he drove.  Barry had witnessed that 
whole incident.  It had been such a shock to his mind that it left him 
in a zombie like state. 

When he walked into room 512 he saw that Nurse Abel, a women in her
middle age had just finished taking the patients temperature and blood 
pressure.  She looked at the doctor as he walked in and smiled at him. 

“Good morning Dr. Lexington.” She greeted. 

“Good morning nurse.” he replied.  “Still no change with Mr. Williams?” 

“Still no change doctor.” 

Barry sat in a chair and stared at a wall blankly.  As the doctor
approached him, he took out a pen light from his right pocket.  He 
shone it in Barry's left eye, then his right searching for any sort of 
reaction.  There was none.  As he examined his new patient, he wondered 
what was going on in Barry's mind, if anything at all. 

______________________________ 

Before the man jumped in front of his train, Barry Williams had led a
good life.  He had been married to his wife for the past four years and 
the couple hoped to have children one day and raise a family.  They 
both agreed that they would try when the both felt that the time was 
right.  Since they were both still in their twenties, they believed 
they still had some time on their side. 

Barry was the sort of man who had an excellent sense of humor and he
always looked on the positive side of life.  He got along very well 
with his co-workers and he had even joined some of them after work at 
least once a week for a beer at a local sports bar.  He did his job to 
the best of his ability and he hoped that he would get a raise in the 
very near future. 

Before he drove the subway trains. He drove the buses for the first year
that he was with the public transit.  He put in an application for the 
trains when he first applied but they weren't available at the time. 

Ever since he was a small boy he always had a love for trains.  He used
to play with his toy train set for hours.  He also loved to ride on the 
subway trains.  He used to fantasies that he would be the driver.  
Dropping off and picking up passengers at the many stations.  He knew 
that when he grew up, he would drive the trains one day.  It was a 
dream that he worked hard at to achieve. 

When the day had finally arrived that he would be transferred from the
buses to the trains, he was overjoyed.  He danced around his apartment 
and took his wife (who was his fiancé at the time) out to dinner to 
celebrate.  His dream had finally come true. 

He had heard stories for experienced drivers about jumpers.  There was
one story about one driver who witnessed a woman jump in front of the 
train he drove.  He was very shaken up about the incident as anyone 
would be.  He claimed that he was fine; he just needed a day or two to 
deal with the tragedy in his own way.  That night he had hung himself 
in his garage.  Since then, all drivers who witnessed such a tragedy 
were sent to have professional help for what they witnessed. 

On the day of Barry's jumper, it had all started out as a typical day
for him.  He started his shift when the station opened at five that 
morning.  It was the early afternoon just before the jumper and the 
noon hour rush had calmed.  He would be done his shift in the next few 


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