correction for blackout in a train

“Randall, do you have anything that you need to buy?” Mum was cutting up cucumbers for dinner. “Yeah, I need a pair of new sports shoes, size six,” Randall mumbled. “Randall, don’t talk to me like that and please go for fitting with me because this in cheap shoe sale some shoes have different diameter measurements,” Mum was annoyed that Randall was rude to her. Randall was furrowing her eyebrows to solve the complicating mathematics question in the practice paper, but was constantly distracted by her mother’s “Randall, do you want…” or “Randall, please help me…” Miss Tan had given the class a heuristics paper in which a mediocre in mathematics girl like Randall needs to focus completely to solve. Finally, she got fed up. “Alright, I’ll go…” She grunted.

“Where are we going to buy the shoes mother?” Randall popped a question. “We are going to get fabulous shoes from the cheap shoes store in Jalan Melayu,” Mum smiled. “She’s such a cheapskate,” Randall muttered under her breath, all her classmates in school have prepared fabulous sport shoes for the national track meet which the school was honored by having the permission to run on the tracks for a March pass. “Please do not leave any valuables on your seats, thank you and have a pleasant day,” The commentator announced when the MRT arrived at Jurong East station. Randall and her mother boarded the green line of the MRT tracks on the map to get to their destination.

The lights began to flicker on and off and the train came to a sudden halt. Randall was flung from her seat to a fat man licking and ice-cream cone and the top of the ice-cream melted off and fell on her. “Urgh…” Randall was disgusted as she flicked off the ice-cream on her head. She took out a piece of tissue and started cleaning up the mess on her head. The silence in the MRT train was broken when the train commentator announced, “Dear passengers, this train has halted because of a technical failure, as such, we will not be able to move until the technical fault is fixed. Meanwhile, passengers on board need not panic, the emergency exit will be opened and all passengers will evacuate and follow the warden,” the commentator ended her ‘speech’. Everyone in the train moaned monotonously as they poured out of the exit. Murmurs were erupting here and there where Aunties were gossiping about the train’s lack of technical checks. Randall sighed, another long hour needed at least if she heads straight home. Randall thought that if she had not came, she would have already finished the question and moved on to her next. The worst thing was, by the time she reached home, it would already be nine o’clock! And she has still got ten questions to go.

Just then, the lights went off. Randall shrieked in fright for she had a phobia of darkness. Mum hugged her tightly and comforted her as tears started rolling down her cheeks. She was afraid of the dark because she had once hugged onto a skeleton in a haunted house when she was seven, her mother had told her not to go in but she had insisted. Randall groped in the darkness, looking for her torch light which she had always brought with her everywhere she went. Just as she took out the torch light, the lights went on and the train was going again. Everyone burst into fits of laughter upon seeing the fifteen year old’s face soaked in tears. Randall turned red with embarrassment.

In the end, only one thing good came out, she had managed to get a Nike sport shoe but a second handed one, although she had only managed to reach home at ten. As for Randall, the horrifying experience made her swear never to take an MRT unless required, or else, she would always take a direct bus or taxi.