The Coal Cars

As you're climbing that annoying hill in the parking lot of your apartment complex, you notice something unusual. Every day you take a shortcut over some train tracks to avoid a much larger and thus more annoying hill because, as we've learned, you are very out of shape. As you approach the train tracks, a massive object looms in your peripheral vision; looking up, you realize it's a train.

Well, not a whole train. It's actually four or five cars from a train--those black, boxlike cars you always see in Westerns that are full of coal. Upon further inspection, you realize that these cars are in fact full of coal as well. Your mind boggles; what are train cars full of coal doing on the train tracks? Where'd the rest of the train go? Who decided to just leave tons and tons of coal sitting in front of an apartment complex? Your mind continues to boggle until you realize the cars are blocking your short cut. Cursing the damn coal cars, you tromp back into the apartment complex and up the much larger and thus more annoying hill.

The next day, you're making you're way up toward the train track shortcut again because, well, you don't learn very well. Of course, this time you're a little more observant and notice the cars are not blocking your path. Points for being observant this time. As you trip over the tracks, you get the crazy urge to climb up that little ladder every coal car has up the side. You wonder what sitting in a huge pile of coal would feel like, especially in a coal car you see in Westerns. But of course you decide against it--you know as soon as you're scrambling up the ladder, someone's going to see you and call the police or something. There's really no way to explain how you were climbing up a coal car by accident. Maybe if your hat blew away in the wind and got caught up there, it would be enough to get you out of any trouble. You curse your current hatless state and move on.

On your way back, you can't help but notice the cars have moved. The same number of coal cars are there, but they shifted about fifty feet. You walk home wondering why someone would have done this.

The mystery of the coal cars entrances you until you discover their absence the next day. You look up and down the tracks; no sign of them anywhere. It makes you a little sad, but also confused.

Moral: Coal cars are really sneaky.