I am on a train with my family. We are in Europe, headed for a city. We plan what we will do in the city, destinations, what do we want to see, to eat.
Sometimes the train goes through a row of arched pvc pipes. They are like the ones in a garden, but without the plastic: just arches. The train goes very very slow in these sections and we get out to walk and stretch our legs. There are fields and birds and trees and wildflowers and butterflies. We even walk in front of the train.
We are in the second set of arches. I am walking in front of the train. My family is on the train. I realize that we are nearly at the end of the arches and I step off the tracks. The train starts to pick up speed almost immediately. I am afraid to wait for the cars, but I let the engine go by. Behind the engine is an emergency car, painted like a giant ambulance. I grab a handle and hop up. The train is speeding up. There are not enough handholds to work my way back on the outside of the train, so I climb into the emergency car. We are going fast, downhill now. I look forward and then back. I see the next car unhook and the rest of the train goes down a different track, fast.
I go forward. The engineers are German. "Is the train getting a different engine?" I say, "Will we meet up with it?"
The engineers look at each other and mutter to each other in German. "No, the train will go to meet another engine."
"Can I catch up with it when we stop?"
"No," says one reluctantly after discussion. "It will take days."
I cry. My family is on the train and the plans are ruined. My purse and luggage are on the train.
I will be fine, it's not what was planned. I will cope.
I wake up.