Dinah, Won't You Blow

Foreword:

First, a special thank you to my friend, who wished to remain nameless, for all of his help in explaining the inter-workings of railroads. Many phone calls and several visits to the pub were involved to help me understand enough, and describe to my readers in a way that the story could make sense to somebody who knew even less about railroading than I do. Any technical mistakes, because I didn't thoroughly understand this unique job are mine alone.

I ask that the readers appreciate how difficult this story was to put together. Even with personal guidance from someone who freely lent their expertise, and a shit load of research, deciding how much explanation was necessary to make the uniqueness of this setting understood by a reader without being over the top was not easy.

I hope that I've succeeded.

Though I use MS Word's "read aloud" and "Grammarly," but some errors still seem to slip by. Miss use of grammar, incorrect spelling, and wrong word usage is entirely on me.

I do try to deliver a good product, but I make mistakes - if that bothers you, move on.

** If you are offended by stories of cheating wives, with the same old tired cliches, the same old overused phrases then move on to another, more worthy tale. I try to add a little spice to an old recipe, but I'm not really plowing any new fields here. So, if it's Hemingway you seek, look elsewhere. You've been warned.

Dinah, Won't You Blow?

I met my wife in a somewhat different circumstance than most of the couples you read about here on Lit. We were first introduced to each other at work. "That's not different you say," and I would counter that since we both worked on the railroad in train service, that qualifies as being a bit uncommon.

She worked as a conductor and I'm an engineer at a Midwest terminal. The railroad that we worked for handled delivering various commodities on "long-haul" runs or possibly "locals" which serviced industries in our area.

Now here's a short, incomplete, basic description of this segment of railroading. My wife and I both worked in what is known as train service, which in general refers to the team of personnel, referred to as the train crew, who actually do the work of moving a train from point A to B and provide industries with the cars they need or remove the ones that they are done with. The typical crew these days consists of one conductor and one engineer. There are many other people involved in making this happen, but I want to keep this tutorial short and simple.

Railroads typically hire folks who have been screened by knowledgeable people to weed out those who cannot perform the medium-difficult physical and mental aspects of being able to do the job. What is truer though, the pre-employment screening is to get rid of drug users, lazy people, or those that don't want to work weekends, which is where new hires are needed - it is not a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday life. Being called to duty late at night, or on weekends, with short notice given to report to work is typical of a railroader's life. Oh, and did I mention that most likely, you have no idea of when you'll be back home. So, when the significant other asks, "When will you be home?" a good answer often is a lousy guess at best.

So, why does anyone do it? Good question. The money, benefits, and the pension package are pretty good, so there's that. Also, some of us are just fucking idiots that have it in our blood and can't come to grips with working a "normal" job.

In general, for the larger railroads, the crews are union employees. Unlike many other industries, where one union represents all of the workers, railroads have many different crafts that are represented by their own specific union. This is complex, and I could write a book here getting into this - but I won't.

My wife was hired out on this particular railroad several years after me and was working at a different terminal, so we hadn't met until five years ago when she transferred in. Being a very sexy-looking 27 year-old divorcee, Dinah got the attention of every railroader in the terminal, train crews, office personnel, and bosses all paid attention. Hell, even the other women were well aware. I'm not saying they wanted to date her, well maybe some did, but everyone took notice, me included.

Anyway, with a little arm-twisting of a supervisor who owed me a favor, she got assigned to my crew to learn our territory. After enough time (unpaid) spent with my conductor, she would go before the trainmaster for testing to demonstrate that she was worthy of being "qualified" on that segment of railroad and could begin working as a conductor on her own.

She was motivated to leap over that hurdle in faster than normal time, as being a divorcee with no mom and dad to foot her bills, she needed an income. I should also mention that she was very intelligent and able to absorb all of the important info Andy Taylor, my regular conductor, and I, Bill Mathews, needed to impart to her so she could operate efficiently and safely. Here again, a discussion on qualifying could get very lengthy, but you now know all you need to for my tale.

The other thing that happened during Dinah's qualification process was that she and I seemed to have chemistry. To Andy's great delight, he noticed before I acknowledged its existence, and tortured me daily, telling me that she would own me before the year's end and that her magnificent ass would be my downfall. He of course, couldn't get enough of watching her butt (it was awesome) as she climbed ladders. Some of them on railroad cars, hell, just to get on an engine you had to climb up a ladder, and didn't he always let her go up first? Truth be told, I got in a position to take in the view as often as possible myself.

As I was fully aware that my time hogging Dinah's attention was short and she'd soon qualify and be out on her own, with other engineers. I felt lucky Andy was not competition for me, he is a bit younger, very fit and very good-looking, but he was also very married and loyal to a fault. If you saw his wife, you'd understand; Heather was awesome and took a back seat to no woman. I needed to make a move.

Being on long pull runs, it is common at the end of a haul for the crew to go out together for a bite to eat, and, depending on the time of day, perhaps a drink or two. Andy and I typically followed this practice when we reached an away-from-home destination, which meant checking into the hotel, showering, getting something to eat, maybe some TV, phone home (for Andy), and hitting the bed to get well-rested for the run back to the home terminal. The call to man a return train might happen in as little as eight hours, for us the sooner it came, the better. When we returned to our home terminal, it was hoped by many of us for a little "off" time to share with family or friends. Andy loved his family, and his premium seniority would allow him to hold jobs that didn't keep him away from them as much, but they needed money to step into a nicer house. We made money, lots of it.

Since being assigned to our crew, Dinah was immediately invited to join us for our post-trip activity, which she agreed to right away and seemed to appreciate the gesture by us to include her.

After the first couple of trips to a distant terminal with Dinah joining us for dinner, Andy decided that I needed help and began to beg off, claiming this or that leaving the breakfast, lunch, or dinner date to just Dinah and me. I was smitten; Andy knew it, I knew it, hell, I think the whole terminal knew it. Andy's ribbing aside, I decided that I wanted to see if there was a possibility of a future with this mesmerizing creature.

I couldn't believe my good luck when she did not object to it being just me, Dinah even giggled and made a joke that Andy might be trying to play cupid. Looking back, I suppose that was done to test my reaction, and very quickly we both started treating the end-of-trip ritual less like two coworkers catching a bite to eat and more like a date.

Our relationship was moving forward at a steady pace, but I was afraid that it had not moved fast enough. I wanted my shot with her, but in my mind, she would soon get her test to qualify, and I doubted she would fail. That would mean she would get marked up to whatever job she had enough seniority to hold. In other words - most likely working with some other guy. Smelling her perfume, admiring her figure, drinking in Dinah's sexual being would be enjoyed by some other fucking guy! Yeah, there were several female engineers that she might work with, but the odds were against me, most of the time it would be a man. Fuck.

The following week I was shocked to see her report to duty with Andy and me, as I was sure she'd qualified a day ago when the trainmaster called her into his office after our trip to the home terminal. She told us that she just didn't feel quite ready and asked for another week of qualifying runs. Specifically telling the trainmaster that she needed more time with trains containing Hazardous Material.

All train service personnel are trained to handle Hazmat cars, but it is a bit more "real" in actual practice, so her request wasn't unbelievable. I expected that we would get a few more of those types of trains for the next week.

OK... good for me.

On the next trip, we got a train of 106 cars which included twenty-five cars loaded with nitric acid that needed to be dropped off at a plant some 56 miles away. She would get some real Hazmat experience. At dinner, I got a tip from a friend that we would get minimum rest. Even with the threat of a short amount of time off, I asked Dinah if she would like a drink before we called it a night. She said that she'd love one.

Going for broke, with one Jack and Coke down and halfway through another, I told her that I wanted more than being a casual acquaintance of hers. Yeah, I said it just that way, Mr. Smooth, what a joke. I realized that I had probably just blown it when she took hold of my arm and pulled me in for the hottest kiss... ever.

"Damn, I was hoping you were feeling it too," she said softly.

The rest of the short night we spent getting to know each other in a more personal way, not like coworkers, but as two people testing the water to see if they want to take it further.

Early the next morning we relieved another crew and delivered a "hot train" to our home terminal. Hot trains are those that are given priority for various reasons.

After marking "off duty" in the computer at our home terminal, Dinah asked if I'd like to come over to her place for dinner. I don't have to tell you my answer. This was what I was hoping for, she was reaching out to me. The evening went well, with some good old-fashioned necking on her couch, which became so steamed that she started to act as if she wasn't sure about what we were doing.

To alleviate her uncertainty, I announced that it was time for me to leave, making her decision of whether to get naked and have sex with me moot.

Her reaction to my sudden withdrawal was hard to read. Maybe relief, but also some disappointment. I was uncertain, but I did feel as though I hadn't lost any points with her due to my response. I was hopeful that she instead, appreciated that I didn't try to push her into something. Evidence of my hope was received at her door when the good night kiss she gave me curled my toes.

That night I learned that she had been married and divorced a cheating husband. It was welcome news to me because I felt very strongly about cheating and cheaters. It was heartening to hear her echo my sediments on that subject.

Our next trip out was a tough one at night. The visibility had been very poor in the driving rain and we had all been straining our eyes watching for signals and things on or near the tracks that shouldn't be there. When we arrived, we all (Andy too) went to breakfast and checked in to the hotel. I promised Dinah to talk later, but I needed a shower and to get some sleep. All three of us had rooms on the same floor and when we arrived at her door Andy and I told her goodnight. Being fairly tired she just nodded but added a kiss on my cheek. After she closed her door, Andy chuckled all the way to his room, and said, "Good night lover," as I opened the door to my room.

Four hours later I heard a knock at my door... it was Dinah. "I can't sleep. There is something that I want to say to you," she whispered while looking at the floor.

I opened the door wider and invited her in with a hand gesture. As there is not always a lot of furniture in hotels, she sat in the only chair and I on the bed.

"I've been thinking a lot about last time," she said with a sparse description, though I knew immediately it was about my abrupt ending of our make-out session.

"I'm not easy. I mean not an easy lay. Sex has to be with my guy; my one and only guy. And I have to be his one and only. Is that a problem for you, for us?"

"Not in the least," I answered.

"Are you sure, you looked undecided if you wanted to get that involved with me?" she asked.

"My only concern was that you seemed undecided about me, and I did not want to push you to a place that you weren't ready to go. I was content to wait until I got a sign that you wanted more," I replied.

"I know that we may get called to work in a few hours, and we need some sleep; but would you be alright with me spending that time with you, in your bed?" she asked.

"That's exactly the kind of sign that I was talking about! Go get your stuff," I said quickly, trying not to let my excitement turn me into a babbling fool.

She must have been already packed because it only took seconds for her to open her door and reappear with her grip in hand and a disarming smile.

We both took a turn in the bathroom and I was already under a sheet in my boxers when she emerged with only a towel wrapped around her.

"Before we do this, let's clarify a few things. Are we now a couple? Are we exclusive?" I asked.

As an answer, she dropped the towel, crawled naked into my bed, and said, "You are my guy until you say otherwise."

Fortunately for us, the bad weather had not only made our trip out difficult but also slowed down railroad progress. There had been problems getting crews to and from trains that had caused many delays. The expectation that we were going to be called to duty the instant our legal rest (crews are governed by "hours of service laws, dictating the amount of rest) was up turned out to be wrong and we ended up getting a welcome extra six hours before we had to report for duty.

After exchanging a couple of texts with Andy about getting something to eat, I began to invent a plan to give Dinah a cover story. I was trying to be protective and didn't want her to be embarrassed if Andy figured out where she had spent the night.

She surprised me with a counter-proposal, "Unless I'm mistaken, last night we decided to be a couple. I'm not ashamed, are you? I want to announce it to the world. I think Andy should be the first to know, let's invite him over and we'll go to eat together."

"No, I am absolutely not ashamed. The fact is I can't believe my incredible luck landing you as my girlfriend. I'll text him now, he's not going to be that surprised though, you have to know that, right?"

And he wasn't. A few moments later there was a knocking on my door and a voice out in the hall saying, "Hey, you two get your pants on and come on out of there... I'm hungry."

So, after that day, everyone knew. Mostly we received a lot of congrats, and privately several of the guys would tell me, "You fuckin' lucky bastard!" (Or some version of that)

An expected problem erupted dashing our newfound bliss. That week after we took another Hazmat train east and brought one back Dinah got qualified and was now able to bid on a job. There were many different types of positions, on some of them the conductor was matched up with an engineer, like Andy and me, but another option was a conductor could mark up on the extra board, and fill whatever job was needed.

A person's seniority number dictated what job a person could hold (have), fortunately, Dinah's number was not too bad, so she'd have some choices. There are many jobs for a conductor without an engineer, most of those get handled by the extra board, and depending on many factors, life there can be hectic, but also possibly lucrative.

I had been working long haul, fast freight trains which often are the biggest money makers and, thereby the most sought after. Dinah did not have enough "whiskers" (seniority) to hold one of those so we decided to let her take whatever position she could safely hold and I would bump on (replace the other engineer with lesser seniority than me) the job so we could spend as much time together as possible. Every once in a while, the tide would shift (people moving around switching jobs) and someone would bump her off the job and it might be a little while before we could team up again. We did the best we could and after a year we decided to make our life together permanent by getting married.

Fast forward three years. I started dropping hints about whether we should consider expanding our family. Dinah's reaction was not what I anticipated, that is, it was more pensive than I expected. While she did not give the indication that it was not something she wanted, there was a notable lack of support.

There was something else putting little ripples in our pond beside the cool reception to having babies. Our being able to stay together on the same job had always been somewhat of a challenge, but recently, she had taken a vacation vacancy on a road job, telling me that the intent was to make a little extra money. After that came a series of her choices that seemed as though she wanted to be working separately.

The kicker came when we finally were able to get back on the same shift and I got bumped off of it by an engineer who I believed always stayed with the higher-paying jobs. I was pondering why Jim Bedlam would make such a move when I got a text from Andy requesting that we meet up for a beer... soon.

The "Dew Drop Inn" was selected and when I entered, Andy was at a booth in the back sucking down a cold one with purpose. I knew immediately that this wasn't going to be pleasant, he never drank fast and never a lot, but there were already three empties on his table.

I sat down and waved to the waitress for a couple more and wondered out loud about the news he was going to share, "Well, I see one of us has a fucking problem. You or me?"

"I'm sorry. I absolutely hate to be the one to lay this on you, but... Jesus Christ Bill... Fuck..."

"Come on Andy, we've been friends too long. You know that whatever it is, I won't hold it against you. Spill it."

"I was on a run out east and ran into Sly Jenner at the hotel, he had brought in a west-bound. We're shooting the shit and Dinah's name comes up when he's asking about how you're doing. Shit."

Andy went on to tell me that according to old Sly, her marriage didn't break up because her ex cheated, but because she did. The way our old acquaintance told it her former husband was one hell of a good guy, Sly's financial guy or something, and was devastated when he found out she was playing around with some other cock. According to the gossip, that was her M.O. - a few years with a guy then itchy pants, and wham, new blood.

"Buddy, that's not what I want to hear, but I'm not much for cheap talk," I stated with a bit more confidence than I really felt.

"Hey, me neither, you know that. But I've been watch'n. What's with the moves she's been making? Kinda seems like she don't want to be on the same job with you. Did you fuck up and are now gett'n punished?" Andy asked.

"I haven't stepped in it that I'm aware of, unless it's that I asked about having a kid."