On a dreary December day Toby braved the blast of icy stream of wind which buffeted him and made him feel naked despite the woolly materials he wore. The materials covered him from the scalp through the ears to the feet. His teeth chattered as soon as he stepped out of ibis Budget Hotel at the heart of Edinburgh Central to head for the nearest tram station about one hundred yards away. The morning weather spoke of quintessential Scotland, cold at the peak of summer. He struggled to raise a ticket from one of the ticketing machines and after three fruitless attempts sought the assistance of a man he met at the stop. The tram rolled in like a faulty wagon on a tow rope when the man initiated the transaction but given the length of time the tram’s door would stay open the helper achieved little.
The man mumbled instructions and rushed into the belly of the tram as the automatic doors prepared to close.
The ticket rolled out but late for him to dash into the mute machine. He stood there alone, shivered, and wondered how long his system would accommodate the icy assault on his near-frozen frame.
“I wish trams have real brains, gray matter I mean,” Toby muttered. “Artificial intelligence cannot take pity on a man about to freeze.” The tram rolled away in silence oblivious of the distressed fellow who needed its warm interior.
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Soon his eyes began to close as the cold wind tore through the material covers on his body. The winds tore through but no wound or tear showed on what he wore or on his flesh but the nails of the wind inflicted wounds on his mind.
As the seconds crawled like night for a sick person, the wind currents appeared to disagree with each other. They swished and snarled while some moaned as if a fight had produced a vanquished who tried to lament its loss. Toby took sides with the vanquished as should be expected.
“I hope I shall survive this,” he muttered a second time and wondered how long it would take before the next tram came. He heard trams arrived at every stop without fail every four minutes. Back in his country Nigeria four minutes would go geometric and double or triple or quadruple for no satisfactory reason.
To retain consciousness, he decided to blank out with a solemn conviction of four minutes being four because eight or twelve or twenty-four or thirty-six would be disastrous. Winter must be seen as an enemy to anyone born and bred in a tropical climate and who has little or no experience in cold climes.
The next tram came as and when due to the relief of the desperate man. Toby fled in rather than walk as a reflex action from decades of use of public transportation in his country. Back home people scramble to board aircrafts despite boarding passes with seat numbers on them!
In few seconds the door closed itself and the tram rolled away. It meandered its way through space covered with trees made leafless by an unseen harvester. Toby smiled when he recalled he had seen the bust of the creator of the famous term “invisible hand” in economics on one of the dreary streets of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland his birthplace. The street, the Royal Mile, bubbled with human activity despite the cold. The monument of Adam Smith sits at a most appropriate space – a market square at the heart of the city.
After several stops to pick stone-faced commuters who made no effort to disguise their disgust at the merciless buffets by the armless boxer called winter winds, Toby saw ‘Haymarket’ on a time-worn signboard and knew the first lap of his journey would end in seconds. The disembodied voice in the tram confirmed what Toby saw as the tram rolled to a stop. When the doors opened Toby gritted his teeth and dashed into the Waverley Station.
The train station appeared to have lost its heating system in the ticketing office. Toby saw it as inappropriate because several users of the station cannot sing “Scotland the Brave.” He made a brisk walk to the queue and joined and hoped a train with warm interior will arrive on time.
A helpful ticketing clerk punched the machine in front of him and the fare showed up on the screen. The screen showed an amount four times what he had budgeted! May be if he flew from Edinburgh to Heathrow he would have spent less. The Clerk appeared to have read his mind and asked whether Toby came to book or he intended to travel by the next train due in fifteen minutes. Toby spent four days in Edinburgh and should have booked for the trip online but he forgot. Because someone or something had to be blamed he decided to blame the weather for his forgetfulness.
Toby delayed till he noticed the stares on faces when he turned to look behind. The weather made people’s patience to wear the size of lingerie. Although the people on the queue made no sound he knew he had over stayed his welcome. In his country invectives would have been hurled at him and one or two persons would have moved forward to stand in front of him. He struggled with his coat and fished out enough cash to pay and rushed off as the train crawled in on the hour. He dashed in and stood at the available space by the entrance because the cabins were full.
The train from Waverley Station to London King’s Cross closed its doors and moved with evident reluctance. Maybe its brain said, “If I had my way I would take a break for hay.” Toby wondered whether the train, like its occupants, felt the icy fingers of the winter winds.
The train appeared to be tired given the quantum of loads and human beings it carried. Several passengers stood at the entrance because human beings and luggage occupied every available space within the cabins near Toby. Many of the commuters however dropped at the next stop and Toby found a convenient seat inside.
When the train gathered speed Toby made attempts to identify points on the route and write them on his notepad but two reasons tampered with his full recollection of the names of all the stations he passed by as the steel millipede ploughed through hill and dale and over aqueducts and gorges from Waverley to King’s Cross. First, he engaged himself in a deep mental effort to generate some measure of comfort because the cold weather refused to let up. Second, at maximum speed he found it difficult to read the sign posts.
The route looked beautiful, much of it agricultural space covered in layers of bold green, the downs populated by sheep in thick woolly clothing along with cows in skimpy wears. Toby sympathised with the cows because nature forgot to endow them with winter wear. They stood motionless in their bare skins and who knew, contemplated their lives and their fate in a cold world.
From the beginning of the journey he found it difficult to adjust to the impact of a train from the opposite direction. Each time it happened he thought a collision took place at the front end and it made him think of the driver. Coal as fuel to propel trains meant the heat generated would keep the driver awake and frost-free during the coldest of temperatures. With electricity to power trains Toby hoped the driver would be warm enough to take the train to the last stop.
By the time the train left Northallerton at a quarter past 4pm day light dipped as if turned down by an unseen hand and night arrived by day! The decrease in intensity of the sun implied colder atmosphere which the moderated temperature in the rail cabin failed to take care of.
A pleasant man rolled a cabinet into the cabin which bore goodies such as cakes, biscuits, tea, and juice. Toby asked himself the reason the man arrived three hours after the train left Waverly. He placed order for cake and tea and watched with impatience as the man took time to arrange the items. When the mixture and the cake were handed to him Toby said to the man, “I believe the cup bears hot tea.”
“Hotter than you think,” the man replied with a big smile. Toby sat back and prayed the hot tea would travel through all the spaces in his frame and defreeze everywhere but he encountered more than he bargained for.
He took a gulp from the paper cup and it turned out to be a disaster. The liquid scalded his lips and his tongue and sent steam into his eyes and brain. If he were in his country he would have screamed, spat out the liquid which continued to boil in his mouth, and offered the man some expletives. Being one of the two black persons in the cabin he swallowed the hotness by force. It travelled all the way to the stomach, scalded every point it touched, and defrosted his entire being. Blood circulation resumed at normal pace given the hot encounter.
In a short while darkness took over in full as early as seven o’clock past morning. Toby observed rows and rows of light which implied closeness to a hub.
With considerable noise as metal clashed with metal and brakes were being applied in readiness for a stop, King’s Cross Station came into view. When the train stopped Toby disembarked and rolled his briefcase to the information desk. A kindly black staff took time to trace and direct him to his proposed accommodation, another ibis facility, this time on Lea Bridge Road in Walthamstow.
. Part of the collection: “Brief Encounters,” by Bassey Ubong, 2024.
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