Having been expedited –after Lawrence Weiner

“Taken from here to where it came from…”

Being part of and not, coming and going… familiar feelings for the traveller and, when layered with both superficial familiarity and a fundamental unfamiliarity, makes for an inconsistent gaze.

Jonathan tells of a train journey to U-C he experienced, from the carriage next door to mine. His is a story of delay, frustration and familiarity. My story is essentially different, experienced from a different angle of view, a different position, that of sitting down.

“and taken to a place and used in such a manner…”

Arriving in Chicago’s Union station I still teetered on the edge of giving myself up to the Amtrak system and the big voiced black women passenger handlers who seem to dominate that underground world. My last sinew of resistance relaxed by the bossy assembling of passengers into cohorts; business class, senior citizens (anyone over 62) and the ‘physically challenged’.

“Bits and pieces put together to present a semblance of the whole”, as Lawrence Weiner might have said (and did). Having reassured the passenger handler that I was able to wait on the hot platform while a wheelchair lift was found, I followed a conga of the rich and aged across the tracks to platform C30.

From where I sat the Amtrak trains looked like skyscrapers, causing me to tilt my head back in an effort (futile) to make eye contact with the driver. As I wheeled down the platform a train guard, so tightly uniformed that she appeared upholstered, took control of me. She stepped close and leant down “what’s your first name?” (I answered “Sue”). “Well Sue, Pleased to meet you. I’m Audrey and I’ll be looking after you, don’t you worry” and shook my hand. At this point I was hers! She was as good as her word, placing me in a carriage “where you won’t be swarmed over by students”, fussing about the open carriage doors and air conditioning, repeatedly addressing me by name as she passed up the carriage, and bringing me (not my travelling companions) a bottle of water when the train was delayed . As we approached U-C station she stood tall in the gangway and directed the other passengers to use the exit at the far end of the carriage so that “this lady can be expedited”.

“… it can only remain as a representation of what it was where it came from”.

Freed from the metal cage of the hand-cranked wheelchair lift I wheeled along the platform to say goodbye to Audrey. I waited as she swung down suitcases for passengers, always punctuated by “have a nice day” , then job done she turned to climb back onboard. I wheeled forward, hand outstretched to say thank you, adding ‘and have a nice one’. Audrey looked surprised and as if we had not met before. Her duty discharged I didn’t really exist anymore.