raced a train.

tonight we raced a train.

he looked over at me and said, "do you think we will make it?"

i looked back, lifting my arm to the handle above the window, "i have no idea man, it will be close."

he absent mindedly flicked the lighter in his hand and said, "we are going to find out. i'm serious. are you ready to find out if we will make it?"

i looked out the window, carefully measuring the approaching train against the impending railway crossing. thoughts flashed across my mind. i checked down everything that could matter. it didn't look like we would make it, even if he accelerated a great deal.

i continued to search through my mind for reasons to tell him to stop, to scream at him to slow down, or to jerk the wheel and cause a slightly less fatal accident.

i looked over and he was staring at me as he banked the car right through an intersection, propelling us in the direction of the train. he didn't accelerate out of the turn, he just kept up our previous speed, edging closer and closer to the train.

i composed myself and answered him calmly, "go for it."

in that moment i was okay with being smashed by several tons of quickly moving locomotive. i've lived a good life, and if that's how it was going to end, i suppose it would have.

he turned and looked at me, easing on the break about fifty meters from the train. "what do you think i am, fucking crazy?"

i just sat and smiled to myself.