Once in a lifetime on a train to Scotland

This is a true story that happened to me and a friend on a train from London to Scotland a while back........

We had almost missed the train that morning, which was because the nice old English lady had sold us tickets for a shuttle that didn't exist.  We had gotten up at about 5 in the morning, and being winter in the U.K., it was still dark outside.  Since we were late, we had to take the tube to King's Cross Station and ran the whole way.  Fukushi kept looking at his watch saying, "we just might make it."  Looking back on the whole trip, it sure was amazing.  Edinburgh was spectacular, Sweden was beautiful and Hamburg was a blast.  We got to King's Cross with about 7 minutes to spare, out of breath, and bewildered by the beautiful architecture.  It was about -2 degrees Celsius but we were drenched in sweat from running for the past half hour with backpacks on our backs and about 5 layers of clothing.  We both smiled because we were actually going to make it to Scotland that day, just in time for the annual Hogmanay New Year's festival that we had heard was amazing.  In the train station, there was 1 snack bar open.  I remember ordering 2 coffees, a hot dog for some reason, and the biggest water they had.  I grabbed the water and gulped it down like I hadn't had a drink in 3 days.  We both ran for the train that was departing, and with our tickets in our hands, we jumped on just in time.  

The train was nearly empty, which was a surprise for New Year's Eve, but what do I know, I'm just a stupid American tourist.  There were two good looking girls sitting behind us, so I kept looking back to try and start up a conversation, but they didn't seem to be noticing.  The Scottish train attendant came by and stamped our tickets, and I lied down and put my headphones in.  It was still dark outside, and at each stop we could see little snowflakes coming down as we pressed onward north into the Scottish countryside....

Our train car was mostly empty, like I said, except for the two mystery girls behind us and a few people at the front of the car.  Fukushi was sitting across from me, reading a Kurt Vonnegut book, and enjoying the emptiness of the train.  I was somewhat tired from the running and getting up at 5 in the morning.  But my body didn't know what time it was because 2 days earlier I was waking up in a bed in LA, which was an 8 hour difference.  I was tired so I laid my head down next to my hot dog and coffee trash.  I heard a child singing "twinkle twinkle little star" in the background.  I didn't pay to much attention to it, but I took notice because it sounded kind of creepy, something that you would hear in an old Hitchcock film.  "Twinkle twinkle little star", she sang, "How I wonder what you are".  I heard the song but was kinda tired and didn't pay any attention to it.  All of a sudden, Fukushi hit me on the head.  I looked up and saw a very shocked look on his face.  His eyes were wide open and he was staring at me.  "What the hell is wrong with you", I said.  He pushed the book in my face and showed me a paragraph about halfway down the page.  I read the paragraph, still confused.  It said, "Right then a girl sang, twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are."  I looked up at Fukushi, and he looked back at me.  I glanced up at the girl who was singing in the front of the car.  Was this some sort of joke?  What just happened?  Are we in the twilight zone?  Fukushi looked at me and said, "dude, I read that paragraph right when she started singing."  It synced up perfectly.

I thought to myself, how many times in your lifetime do you hear a little girl randomly singing twinkle twinkle little star.  Then I thought, how many times do you read a book with the lyrics to that song in them.  Then I thought, what are the chances of this happening on this cold and dark winter morning in Scotland?  We looked at each other and the looked up at the girl who was singing, and she was looking back at us.  Maybe she had some 6th sense and started singing because she heard Fukushi's thoughts.  That was the only explanation.  we figured that it must be some omen for what was about to happen on that trip, and decided not to look into it too much.  

The train pulled into Edinburgh at about 10 in the morning that New.

And I'll save the rest for later.  Thanks for reading.

-Johnathan Martinez

Kings Cross Station, the day before