Very Small Array

{READ THIS ODYSSEY FROM THE BEGINNING}

The bus arrives and we sit in plastic seats near the back. The bus lumbers slowly and stops frequently. We pull into a large parking lot by I-95. In the middle of the parking lot is the Fort Lauderdale Amtrak terminal.

The Silver Meteor leaves an hour earlier than the Silver Star, and we arrive in time to witness its arrival and departure. It will get to New York eight hours before we do. It costs sixty dollars more than the Silver Star. We are taking the Silver Star.

As the Silver Star starts to follow I-95 north up the east coast we leave our upholstered seats and adjourn to the club car where we sit across a plastic table from each other. The club car sells a slim, overpriced assortment of snacks, sandwiches and beer. Out the window we watch green fly by.

A woman from Key West wearing a black tee shirt that asks “Got ink?” is talking. The woman is talking to a man from Jamaica who says he is in America visiting family but never says where in America that family is. The woman is loud. Key West is awesome because people get totally naked. Her boyfriend is Mexican, and he’s a really big guy so people are afraid of him, bt the big guys are always the sweeties, you know? The man from Jamaica is a good listener because he is busy drinking.

The train stops. The train rolls backwards for a while. The steward must remind the woman from Key West and the man from Jamaica that as this is a family space loud cursing is not allowed. The train begins to go forward again, slowly. The train stops. The conductor’s voice says we will be moving shortly. Two policemen enter the club car. They take away the man from Jamaica. The car starts rolling slowly forward.

We put peanut butter on crackers and eat them at our seats. When it gets dark we are still in Florida. By the next morning we are in North Carolina.

We climb from Penn Station’s dank stomach to the street in worn sneakers and under giant backpacks. And then we are in New York.

We left as residents and return as tourists.

We are walking to Times Square to meet my sister. The signs are too familiar. Bag Man, Jack’s, the Manhattan Mall. In five minutes we have never left.

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BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
ONE WAY FARE $1.25USD
broward.org

AMTRAK’S SILVER STAR
ONE WAY TICKET COACH CLASS $201.40USD
DEPARTS FORT LAUDERDALE, FL DAILY 10:30AM
ARRIVES NEW YORK, NY NEXT DAY 7:30 PM
amtrak.com

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CUNARD’S QUEEN MARY 2
ONE WAY TICKET $2508.96USD
TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING DEPARTS SOUTHAMPTON EVERY TWO WEEKS, APRIL-OCTOBER
ARRIVES NEW YORK SIX DAYS LATER
OR, IN OUR SINGULAR CASE AND DESPITE OUR BEST WISHES, ARRIVES FORT LAUDERDALE SEVEN DAYS LATER
cunard.com

The train leaves from Victoria Station. The train ticket costs more than our first-class overnight journey from Shanghai to Beijing.

We sit across from each other with a small fold-down table between us and a large, clean window to our right. Trees go by and we eat bread with cheese. Disembarking at Southhampton, we watch the other passengers board shuttle buses or climb in cars. We start to walk.

Guided by an overly optimistic hand-drawn map we walk down Western Esplanade to West Quay Road as it slopes towards the water. We still have five pounds and we are determined to spend it. In a supermarket we debate away our precious travel minutes in the beer aisle, finally buying a six pack of Wells Bombardier because the package says “£5” in white in a big red circle.

Where the public road and private dock meet there is a small security hut monitored by a man in a navy blue jacket. We arrive sweating under over-full backpacks and clutching white plastic bags of beer. We have been wearing the same clothes for so long that the dye has etched itself into our skin. The security man asks to see our tickets. We dig through our packs past worn and stinking clothes for the embossed leather -bound folders holding our tickets. We are waved on.

Twenty minutes of walking later we reach a garage filled with cars and British flags, the foyer to the soft-lit wall to wall carpeted terminal where we stand on several lines and present our papers to deferential people who give us plastic identification cards that will open the door to our room and track our spending. Then we pass through a series of tubes to a series of escalators. We are on the boat.

As the boat launches passengers stand on the deck and make the traditional champagne toast. At least according to the photographs displayed for sale along the corridor between the dining area and the main staircase. As the ship launches we are taking showers and changing our clothes for the first time in four days.

…

ONE WAY TICKET 50.60GBP (APPROX $101.76USD)
DEPARTS LONDON EVERY HOUR OR SO
ARRIVES SOUTHAMPTON AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER
ojp.nationalrail.co.uk

Eurostar tickets go on sale eight months before the date of departure. I book our tickets as soon as they go on sale. I get an email confirmation and put the whole thing out of my mind for about eight months.

It is the day before our departure. I do not know which station our train leaves from. The Pompideau Center has free if tenuous wifi outside. Ten minutes are spent sitting, trying, and waiting in multiple locations before I have copied down the confirmation code, departure time and departure station. I will need all of these things.

The metro is fast, clean and efficient. We reach Gare du Nord in less than half an hour. Check-in is like that at an airport. There are four automated check-in machines outside the Eurostar terminal. Give them five minutes and the credit card you bought the ticket with and there, simply, is your ticket. There are four automated check-in machines outside the Eurostar terminal at Gare du Nord and they are all broken. We stand in line to give our reservation code and credit card to a lady behind a counter.

We fill in our customs cards and we are ready to go. A bank of entry gates requires a ticket slid into a tray before the green light goes on, the ticket is returned and the kidney-level doors give way for you. I have such faith in systems that I am through the gate, my ticket in my hand, before I realize that the light has never turned green. The doors have never given way. I have muscled my way through. Mister Chen is on the other side of the gates with a ticket that does not work. The lady in charge takes him over to the manned station. I try to go back through the gates to get my ticket properly validated. I am waved on.

The duty-free shops in the terminal sell cheap cigarettes and extremely expensive sandwiches. Twenty minutes before the train leaves they announce it on track three, and a polite line forms to the doorway and down an escalator as it flattens into a mechanical incline and then to a motorized walkway. Our car is empty. The tray tables are large and sturdy. There are two levels of overhead baggage compartments. The conductor makes all announcements in French and then in English. Twenty minutes in the darkness of the chunnel and then the conductor is making all announcements in English and then in French. At Waterloo a stout friendly lady in a clean navy blue sweater and white collared shirt asks us why we are visiting and for how long. Tourism and two days are the right answers. We are through.

…

PARIS METRO
ONE WAY TICKET 1.40EU (ABOUT 2USD)

EUROSTAR TRAIN 9019
ONE WAY TICKET 178USD
DEPARTS PARIS FREQUENTLY
ARRIVES LONDON ABOUT TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER

We bought the tickets online a month ahead of time. That’s what they say to do for the Rome-Paris sleeper train. We got to the station an hour ahead of time. That gave us forty minutes to stare at the display at the Roma Termini station. Track 7! We push our selves and bags over to the track and get in the car. In each compartment a bench of three seats sits across from a bench of three seats. Two levels of beds are above on either side, the middle one folded up to allow seating. Our tickets are for the two bench seats in the middle, corresponding to the two middle beds. The window seats are the beds on the very top and the corridor seat is the bench we will sit on.

We are in the middle seats facing each other when an Italian couple sits in the window seats. The train starts moving. The steward, speaking French and English, comes by to collect our tickets and passports. Another man comes by and hands everyone non-sparkling mineral water and a cup. We eat our cold, last-minute supermarket sandwiches. The Italian couple looks about our age. They are wearing leather jackets, They look like they have jobs.

Their sandwiches look so much better.

The train is half-full into Firenze, and then everyone else gets on. A quiet man takes one of our corridor seats. The train leaves Firenze. It’s 8:53. The Italian couple begins to prepare their beds. The quiet man leaves.

The quiet man is wise to leave. The top bunks lie flat horizontally and the blankets and pillows are stored on top of them. To take your place on the top bunk you must find an empty place to store the extra blankets and pillows. Then anyone sitting must rise so you can access the ladder that sits under the bench seat. The ladder hooks into the top bunk. It does not hook in readily, but eventually. Mister Chen drags down his middle bunk through a complicated series of levers. And I open my bed, and the quiet man comes back. We would have been fine sleeping in our seats.

The transformation of beds back to seats never takes place. Mister Chen remains sleeping until we pull into Paris Bercy. The steward returns with our passports and tickets. We get off the train. We have no idea where we are.

…

TRAIN 226 TO PARIS
ONE WAY TICKET SECOND CLASS $386USD
DEPARTS ROME 6:40PM
ARRIVES PARIS NEXT DAY 9:10AM
artesia.eu