Railroad Crossing

The Railroad Crossing is a sad story about a tragedy that occurred one evening on a railway intersection.

A man was driving home from work one evening when he came to a railroad crossing. The traffic lights turned red, so he stopped the car in front of the tracks. He heard the bell ringing and saw the barrier slowly coming down. He glanced to his left and noticed a teenage schoolgirl hurrying down the sidewalk. When she saw the barrier coming down, she started running, trying to cross the tracks before the train came.

Halfway across the railroad tracks, the girl suddenly stopped. Her foot was caught in a gap between the wooden slats and the metal rail. The train was approaching fast. The man watched in horror as the girl tried desperately to free her leg. He jumped out of his car and ran over to the barrier, waving his hands and shouting, attempting to warn the train driver. It was no use. The girl couldn’t free herself and screamed out, “I don’t want to die!”

The man turned away and hid his eyes as the train thundered through the intersection. He cringed as he heard the girl’s scream suddenly cut off by the deafening clack clack clack of the train on the tracks.

As the train roared off into the distance, he gingerly opened his eyes and forced himself to look. He braced himself for the terrible sight he was expecting to see, but the railroad tracks were completely empty.

There was no sign of the girl’s mangled body.

There was no blood at all.

He looked around, wondering what had happened to her.

Where could she be? Did she manage to free herself in time?

Just then, he noticed a small marble plaque on the wall between the barrier and the railroad tracks. It was surrounded by flowers and candles. The inscription on the plaque read:

“In loving memory of our darling daughter who was taken from us much too soon. Rest In Peace.”