Mr Hevert

Impossible, thinks Mr. Hevert, impossible that the train can be running this late, unless there’s some unusual trouble on the tracks, or something has gone haywire, or terrorists have blown up a tunnel, or blown up the switching station, because the train has never been delayed as long as a minute, I have always relied on the train, I have always taken the train, it has never been late, it has never been an hour and twenty-two minutes late, and there has been no announcement, normally, if a train is delayed, an announcement is made, instead there has been dead silence surrounding the delay of this train, and this train replaced the old train less than a year ago, the tracks were repaired at the same time, it’s impossible for this delay to occur and without explanation, at such a time, when the train has run on schedule except during those repairs and replacements, when the regular passengers on the train were conveyed by a different line, which only ran as far as a station that wasn’t very inconvenient, at least for myself, I can’t speak for any of the other passengers, perhaps many of them needed to be fetched by cars from home and driven long distances, but this was never the case for me, since my house is equidistant from that station and the regular station, it’s incomprehensible, what with no announcement, an announcement always issues when a train is delayed, and there never has been a delay in all the years I have taken this train, except during the repairs and replacements, when ample notice of these repairs and replacements was posted in advance, but now, today, this is a different kettle of fish, who knows what’s happened, and what if that’s the point, that whatever’s happened is something we can’t be told, what if some disaster of enormous magnitude has not only delayed the train but destroyed communications between wherever the train station receives information and here, a disaster of unimaginable proportions, a disaster affecting not only the train but all trains, not only all trains but all communications, what then, what if I can’t safely reach my destination, what if I return home and learn that something inconceivably horrible has taken place, what then, if it were a question of asking someone, that would be one thing, but I don’t know any of these people standing on the platform, in fact I have never seen any of these people before, though surely I have seen them every day, since I take this train every day and I am familiar with everyone else who takes this train, and none of them appears to be here, or else I’ve never looked at them closely enough, but what if everyone who regularly takes this train learned of a calamity I can’t imagine before leaving their houses to go to the train station, what if I’m the only person unaware of what’s happened, but if that were the case, why would these strangers be standing along the platform, acting as if they too expected the train, and have waited for it as long as I have, what if they know something I don’t know, what then, I can’t approach a stranger and ask for an explanation of this delay, how would I ask such a question, when perhaps these strangers have never taken this train before and believe such delays are normal?
Why are these strangers taking this train on this particular day? Is there something I am unaware of, aside from all the other things I’m unaware of, something known hours or days or even weeks ago that I failed to notice, something special, something peculiar, something unusual everyone else knows all about, and why would I be the only one who knows nothing about it?