Seeing that
the conductor planned to grab the thing, I stood up as well, but didn’t react
fast enough. The bat lazily wafted around the conductor, who made a mad grab
just as the train hit a bump, sending him flying onto the lap of a girl trying
to prevent it from flying into her hair. It fluttered over my head and headed
up onto the second level of the train car.
The
conductor stood up, brushed himself off and fished his keys out from under the
girl he had fallen on. He glanced over the train car once at the passengers
trying to recover from what had apparently been a horribly traumatizing
experience. From overhead we could hear the screams as the bat fluttered about
on the second floor. I frowned and ran up the stairs as the conductor headed in
the other direction.
I got up to
the second floor to see the bat fluttering down the aisle searching for an exit
from the train. Meanwhile, people swatted ineffectually at it or cowered from
the tiny creature. The conductor appeared in the aisle across from me, his coat
in his hand as a sort of makeshift net. The bat headed towards him, and, in a
stroke of brilliance he tossed the coat at the bat, which dove under it, turned
180 and headed towards me. The cars passengers, already dishevelled from the
bats first pass, let out a few more screams. I waved my arms wildly, unsure how
I could possible catch it. The bat, clearly on to us by now, turned around and
seeing both exits blocked landed on a ladies handbag.
Now the
handbag in question was sitting on an empty seat and its owner froze with fear
as the small creature hung from one of the straps. The conductor, his coat
retrieved, worked his way up the aisle towards the creature, which regarded him
with curiosity. Instead of throwing his jacket he this time quickly wrapped it
around the bat, capturing it. Pinning the bat down, he wrapped it in the jacket
and picked it up. The few passengers watching applauded, though most of them
did little more then peek out from under whatever bags or books they had used
to either hide themselves from the bat or protect themselves from there
neighbours.
I went back
downstairs and the conductor appeared soon after with a slightly wiggling
jacket. He was trying pretty hard not to laugh and looked very dishevelled with
his tie and shirt skewed and half tucked in. He grinned as he pulled back the
bundle a little bit to reveal to me and my girlfriend the bat, wings firmly
pinned. It regarded us with more curiosity then fear and continued to struggle
against the jacket. We stood there, in the aisle, watching the bat and waiting
for the station, while people retrieved the contents of there purses and
apologized to each other for hitting each other with said purses.
Eventually
we came to the station and the conductor ran off the train several yards and
released the bat. We watched it lazily flap off towards the nearest tree, where
it immediately perched and watched with interest as the train unloaded. I shook
my head in disbelief as the conductor got back onto the train. “All in a days
work?” I said and he laughed. “Yep,” he said, “Just another day on the west
coast express.” He radioed in the control room. “The bat is off the train guys,
let’s go.” The radio crackled with the response. “Off we go then. Good work today batman.”
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