Audra-
I
have had the pleasure of visiting the train tracks in San Antonio.
My
husband
was driving our car with me riding shotgun and his sister in the
back
seat. We covered the car with baby powder and parked on the tracks.
We
shut
the car off and put on the emergency brake and my husband pushed as
hard
as he could on the brakes. After a few seconds the car started rocking
as
if someone was pushing us from behind. My sister-in-law burst into tears
and
said, "Look!" I turned to look back at her and saw big and little
handprints
in the baby powder on the window next to her. The rocking
continued,
all the while my husband had his feet on the brakes. Then the
car
rolled up-hill as if we were driving, and then down away from the tracks
to
safety. It was an experience I will never forget.
John-
Somewhere outside of San Antonio is a dark lone railroad crossing.
Many
years ago, a Nun was driving across the crossing with a school bus of
children.
It was late, dark. They were coming home from a day's outing in
the
country. Many of the children were asleep, tired from playing in the
outdoors.
As
the bus began crossing, the motor died. The nun tried a number of times
to
restart the bus, but it wouldn't start. Suddenly, she realized a train
was
on the track, moving much too fast, and without any lights on. The
conductor
had fallen asleep. Frantically she tried to start the bus,
knowing
it was now too late to wake and move the children off the bus.
The
bus never started. The train hit with so much force it ripped the
drivers
compartment off the bus, threw it away from the tracks and dragged
the
bus hundreds of yards down the road. The train continued down the
track,
the conductor never knowing what he did. The nun survived. The
children
did not.
Many
months later, the nun was still filled with guilt and decided to take
her
life as the children did. She drove to the same spot where the accident
happened,
stopped her car on the tracks, and waited.
It
became very dark as time passed. And eventually a train could be heard
coming
down the track. The nun sat, cried, and waited, but then heard what
she
thought was footsteps.........and then voices........of children,
playing,
running, and laughing. The train kept coming at her, sounding it's
loud
horn and flashing its lights, unable to stop in time, trying to warn her.
The
nun put her face in her hands and waited for her death. As she sat
praying,
she heard the chidrens voices become louder and then she felt the
car
lurch forward as if being pushed from the rear. The car rolled over the
tracks,
down the hill, the train rolled on by. Her life was saved.
After
the train passed, the nun got out of the car and
looked
for the children, but saw no one. As
she
walked back to her car, she looked at the back of her car and saw many
tiny
handprints as if children had pushed her car off the tracks.
The
nun went on to start an orphanage and took care of lost children. When
she
died, those at the funeral said they heard voices of children playing,
and
the voice of one lone adult laughing.
To
this day, it is said if you park your car in neutral on the track in the
middle
of the night, and stay very quiet, you will hear voices and your car
will
be pushed off the track.