A funny thing happened on the way to the aquarium

We planned to go to the aquarium. But the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.Yes, awry is definitely where our plans, and Grant, went today.

Grant, Thomison and I headed to the train station around 11:30 this morning. We had two transfers to make, one in Ofuna and another in Fujisawa.

We successfully made it to Ofuna. All three of us got of the train and headed for the next platform. A couple of people ran past us as we were descending the stairs, trying to catch the train before the door shut.

"Is that our train?" Thomison asked.
"Yeah." I said, and stopped walking, the train was making its the-doors-are-closing-now-so-tough-luck noise, we would have to wait three minutes for the next train.

Grant had other ideas.

He barrelled past me and slammed through the closing doors onto the train. He was barely inside when the train began to move. He turned and look through the window at us. We smiled and waved. He waved back.

"He'll wait for us at the next stop." I told Thomison. "Why would you do that?"
"I have no idea. He just barreled through."

We waited three minutes, boarded the next train and got off at Fujisawa - no Grant. We walked up and down the platform looking for him - no Grant. We went back to Ofuna thinking he must have immediately gone back to find us - no Grant.

By this time I was very annoyed. Thomison wasn't too thrilled either.

Two hours later I was cold, tired and too worried to be angry. Was he lost? Did he know how to get home? Had he decided to run away forever? Would he live through the scolding I would give him when he did finally get home? All these questions tore at me.

Finally we decided to head home. He could be anywhere. Freezing on the platform wasn't helping anything.

It turned out he'd gotten fed up and gone home an hour earlier. When I got home (Thomison made a detour to get some food) he was waiting for me with an apology note and a glass full of purple flowers. Evidently he had gotten off at the wrong stop and missed us on the way back.

Then and there we made a contingency plan in case we should ever get separated again.

Tomorrow we're going to the aquarium. I hope.

I leave you today with quote by Barbra Hall, "The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark," though I recomend waiting for the next train.