Behind the Yellow Line

October 6, 2023

What an incredible day! I learned a lot. I actually used my powers to SAVE SOMEONE’S LIFE!!!

I also learned that there’s someone else out there with powers like mine. Well, not quite like mine. I can only gain someone’s trust. It looks like this guy can actually propel people into action. Manipulate what they think and feel and believe to a degree sufficient to get them to act on it. And far more concerning, it looks like this guy uses his powers maliciously.

Here begins the record:

I was early to the morning train. Why is irrelevant. Things just worked out that way.

It was going to be a beautiful fall sunrise and I didn’t feel like sitting in the car, so I went to the track and enjoyed the crisp air. There was only one other person there. A man. Not a regular. I had never seen him before. He stood at the far end of the track to the left—the same direction the train comes from.

He looked to be in his late thirties, maybe early forties. A normal looking guy. But there was something off about him. His shoulders were slumped. His head hung low. His hands were twisting around each other like electrified snakes. More alarming, he stood in the yellow safety strip, with his toes hanging over the edge of the platform.

This was not good.

I knew there was a train coming soon. A few minutes before our commuter train. It was an Amtrak from D.C. to New York. It didn’t stop at our little station. It would rocket past.

I walked slowly up to the guy. He had light colored hair and even lighter colored skin. He was neither fat nor skinny. A little taller than average. He wore gray trousers and a checkered shirt. There was a briefcase on the ground to his left. A Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cup on the ground to his right. He was a normal looking guy.

“Hey friend, you okay?”

I was about two feet to the guy’s right. And back a bit. Behind the yellow line. Miles of track stretched out in front of us. His eyes were turned away from me. Both of us were staring at the empty tracks. There was no train in sight. Not yet.

“You okay?”

No response. Not even recognition. Just absolute focus. So I decided to use my powers. Just enough to get his attention.

“I won’t hurt you, friend. Trust me.”

The man’s head tilted ever so as his focus shifted from the tracks to me. I nudged him with my powers again.

“Hi there,” I said. “I’m David. What’s your name?”

“Cody.”

“Hi Cody. What’s going on? You can tell me.”

The man’s head lifted. Then turned to face me. His eyes were red. Cheeks streaked with tears. Snot forming atop his upper lip.

“I’m gonna to kill myself.”

My stomach dropped.

“Why?”

My voice was barely above a whisper.

“I’m completely worthless. I need to die.”

I struggled to think of how to respond.

“Why would you think that?” I asked.

His answer stunned me.

“The guy at Dunkin’ said so. I’m worthless. I’m ugly and stupid and all alone. I’m better off dead. The sooner the better. Those were his words. And I have to obey.”

Surprise stole my words for a time. And confusion.

“What guy at Dunkin’?”

A slight rumble in the distance snatched his attention away from me. Four points of light penetrated the early morning gloom. Two tight together. Flanked by two more sitting just below the first.

It was the Amtrak train. I had maybe fifteen seconds before it arrived. Then Cody was gone.

“What guy at Dunkin’, Cody? What happened?”

Cody wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was fixated on the coming train.

I stepped closer. I touched his shoulder gently, hoping that the physical contact would increase my power’s potency.

“Tell me what happened, Cody. What happened at Dunkin’?”

“There isn’t time! I have a train to catch. I need to die.”

Nine seconds now.

“Not this train, Cody. The next one. Tell me what happened. Trust me.”

Cody’s head shook back and forth. Straining under physical exertion.

“I have to die! I am worthless!”

Four seconds.

“The next train, Cody. There’s always another. Talk to me now. Trust me. Trust me!”

Cody’s head turned at the last minute. The spell temporarily broken. Tears streamed down his face as Amtrak’s express train blasted past us.

“I’m worthless. I need to die.”

He was a crying robot. The words forced their way through his mouth like sounds out of a tinny speaker.

“Why do you think that, Cody? What happened at Dunkin’?”

Cody let the tears and snot drip from his face as he spoke, recounting that morning’s events.

“I went there this morning, just like every other morning. But I hit a car as I was getting out of the parking lot. It was a little fender bender. I was nothing major. Really! I wasn’t paying attention, I guess. And the guy’s parking job was terrible. Just terrible. Anyway, the ball of my hitch popped right through this little car’s front grill. I mean, punched right through it. There was no other damage. It was purely cosmetic. But man did it make a racket. Pop! Like a gun going off. The next thing I knew this guy was running out of Dunkin’ yelling and screaming. I couldn’t get a word in.

“He was a little man. Fat and bald. His face was beet red with anger. He told me I was stupid. He told me I was ugly. He said all these things using horrible language. Very foul language.

“Then his voice changed. Then the world changed. He told me I was worthless. He told me nobody loved me and nobody ever would. He told me I would be alone forever and that I needed to kill myself. He said I needed to jump I front of a moving train.

“And I knew he was right. He was right about everything. It’s all I could think about. It’s all I am. I am worthless. I am alone. I have nothing to live for. I feel it deep in my soul. I’m better off dead. So I came here . . .”

Cody’s sobs choked out his final words. His wringing hands lifted to cover his grief-twisted face. My heart ached for him. And I knew what had happened, though I didn’t know how to help it. I tried using my raw powers.

“You aren’t stupid, Cody. Or ugly. You aren’t worthless. And you will not be better off dead. Trust me. Trust me. Trust Me. You want to get out of here. You want to go home. You want to be with someone you love.”

Cody’s head shook as his voice quivered.

“I’m alone. I all alone.”

I pressed again, grabbing him with both hands now, using my powers to gain his trust.

“You aren’t worthless, Cody. Not at all. And doing this won’t make anything better. Do you understand me? Do you believe me?”

A weary smile glimmered momentarily on his face. But it quickly vanished, consumed by a wave of bleak melancholy.

“I believe that you believe it. But that doesn’t make it true. I’m worthless. And I have to die.”

He said it again with the forced, synthetic voice.

Cody’s body began to turn back towards the train tracks just as another set of lights materialized in the distance—two lights, high and crowding each other. It was the commuter train. My commuter train. It would be here in about a minute’s time. It’d stop. So it was considerably slower than the Amtrak. And slowing down. But it’d still break every bone in Cody’s body if he jumped here. He would most certainly die. Painfully.

I had to act. Whether Cody was willing or not.

With my hands still holding his arms, I pulled. Hard. Trying to get Cody away from the edge of the platform.

His strength was fueled by determination beyond his own. His feet were planted. Welded to the yellow strip. I couldn’t move him. I could barely shake him.

But I shook him enough. The sparkle of a metal cross caught my eye as the lights from the train grew ever larger. My brain had no time to think. So my mouth spoke without caution.

“You’re a Christian.”

The question caught Cody by surprise. He answered. Though his body, eyes, and mind continued to focus on the oncoming train.

Fifty seconds out.

“I am.”

“What does John 3:16 say?”

His voice trembled as he tried to remember. My brain burned as I exerted every ounce of my powers.

“Trust me, Cody. What does John 3:16 say?”

Cody gave a rote recitation. Like a recipe. Or grocery list.

“‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son?’”

“That’s right. God loved us so much that he was willing to sacrifice His only Son for us. He loves you that much too, Cody. Do you know why?”

Cody’s lips fumbled for an answer.

I didn’t have time to wait.

Forty seconds.

“It’s because you are His son, Cody. You aren’t an animal or a tree or a rock. You aren’t just one of his uncountable cosmic creations. You are infinitely more valuable than all of them combined. Because you are His son! You are an actual Son of God! And He loves you with all the feelings of a tender parent!”

Cody’s head began to turn.

“He loves you, Cody! He loves you! Trust me.”

Cody’s red eyes caught mine as the train churned closer and closer.

Thirty seconds.

“So what? God made a loser. A dud. What does that change?”

Words raced as my mind blurred and powers churned.

“Jumping in front of that train won’t solve your problems, Cody. There’s more after this life. You know that. Killing yourself now—this way—is just going to take the pain with you into the next life.

“There is a way to ease the suffering, though. Right now. There’s a way to replace it with love and joy and peace. I know. I’ve hurt too. Deeply. And I’ve felt alone as well. Completely. But these feelings aren’t permanent. No matter how overwhelming they feel. They can be replaced and forever forgotten.”

Cody’s anguished voice cried out.

“How?!”

Twenty seconds.

“Through Christ, Cody. He can replace your hurt with love. He can fill your emptiness with peace. He can give you the strength to face another day. And then another. And then another. Until you’re better than fully restored. He will make you better. Stronger. More like Him.”

A familiar waver in Cody’s eyes told me that I was almost there. So I pushed on. Fully crying myself now. Exerting every ounce of strength left in me to keep his focus on me.

Fifteen seconds.

“That’s why He came to Earth, Cody. That’s why He suffered in the Garden. That’s why He died on the cross. To forgive you. Yes. But also to heal you. To succor you. To strengthen you. To show you just how much you are loved.”

Ten seconds.

“He loves you, Cody. Our Father loves you. And so does His Son.”

Seven seconds.

“I can show you Their love, Cody. As real as a mother’s warm embrace. You don’t ever need to feel alone again. Just come with me. Trust me, Cody. Please!”

The roar of the train enveloped us. Its blunt, gray face loomed—a racing wall of steel. My hands still gripped Cody’s arms. His body was still rigid. His head turned back. Transfixed on the train.

“Come with me, Cody? Please!”

The relentless beast of electrified metal was upon us. Three seconds out and I could feel Cody’s body tense. I screamed my final plea.

“Let me show you, Cody. Let me show you.”

One second . . .

One last second . . .

“Okay.”

Cody’s body collapsed. Falling backward into my arms. Weeping. We held each other. Both of us weeping.

“Thank you, Cody. Thank you. It’ll be okay. You’re not alone anymore. Not ever. Let’s get out of here.”

Cody followed me off the track and away from the station. I took the day off work and we did a lot of talking. I brought the elders on board. And Brother Chambers (who recommended a good psychologist). When I left Cody, he was in a much better place. Surrounded by a sweet, peaceful spirit. An enveloping love. I believe he’ll be okay.

Thank God!

But who was that man at Dunkin’? Who would use his powers so recklessly? And to such horrible result?

I’ll have to ponder on this.

And keep an eye out.

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