Didn’t Pay for My Fare

Translated…

I’d ridden the trains to school for nine years, and had always, followed the rules, paid for my fares.  And every time I’d heard about how someone who rode for free once, after many years, s/he had, mailed the amount s/he owed for the tickets back to the railway stations, and I’d felt odd, why would someone skip paying just a few measly dollars of train fare?

One year during my summer cram school, I’d not bought the monthly fares, instead, just the single trips, at that time, my uncle who’s about the same age as I am, continually told me how easy it would be, to sneak on the trains without paying, and how he’d done it, so many times, very successfully, that it would be impossible, for me to get caught too, he’d encouraged me to ride the trains without paying.

And, the reason I rode for free, was NOT to save up the train fares, but for sun, I suppose!  Anyways, something got a hold of me, as the trains arrived in Taipei, I’d agreed to follow my uncle off, left the platforms, and, walked toward the train tracks.  He said, that this way, we could, walk out of the stations, without getting caught, but, I’d started, feeling thrilled, felt, that my heart is about to, jump out of my chest at any time.  As I was about to tell my uncle I’m going to pay for my fare, there was, a ticket scanner, and we were caught, red handed.

The very first time, I’d tried to not pay for my fare, I was, caught, and my uncle blamed me for being a jinx, but, I’d kept that feeling of shame, rushing over my entire body even more, I’d hoped, that I could, turn back the clocks.  And, ever since, for my rides, I’d never, not paid for my fares.

paying for the tickets!  Not my photo here…

One spring, I’d gone to Innsbruck, Austria, because we lived in the suburbs, and needed to get on the bus to get into the city; the electronic bus passes are for twenty-four hours, we’d needed to, swipe the card first, to get the time to start counting.  After we’d bought our fares, my companions looked around, didn’t see the attendants, and it was, the down season for tourism, with little to no other tourists, someone had an idea, let’s swipe the cards later, that way, we get to, lengthen the usage time.  The others agreed immediately, wanted to take some small advantage, and I’d forgotten, about that time when I was a student too, and didn’t object.

But, don’t know why, my heart became, really, unsettled, kept hoped that we arrive at the stations sooner, that so long as we got off, everything will be all right.  And, it’s odd, that the more worried I got, the more bumps in the road we got into, after a few stations, we saw a checking attendant come onboard.  The four of us got called off, with everybody else on the trains watching, will they guess which country we were from?  But, too late for regrets, what was worse, was that we’d brought shame to ourselves, in a foreign nation.

The checker wanted us to give him our passports, we’d looked at each other, red in the face, because we’re about to, leave the country, and feared, that this may affect our schedules, hoped, that things can be reduced to nothing.

He’d not given us a hard time, just kept that cold face, said we’d needed to pay a fine, and, we were, so shocked, we’d, handed him all the currencies we had on us.  He’d counted up the bills, and seemed to feel satisfied, waved his hand, told us we could leave, but, he wasn’t, able to, ward off that sense of shame that was now, flowing in the air, I was, the eldest of my tour group, and I’d, not set a better example.

photo from online…

And one of the friend was so angered she’d started crying, because she was one who’d voted against trying to dodge paying the fare, and didn’t voice her objections, in the end, she’d, ended up, losing the local currencies she’d saved up.

Several years had flashed by, I’d come to the home of Mozart, Salzburg, because it was the summers, my friend found every trolley was very populated, said, “I think it’ll be okay if we don’t buy the fares.”, I’d waved my hands no, refused to go along.  The awful memories of my not paying for my fares in my travels, once, was more than enough.

the cathedral at Salzburg, photo from online…

So, you’d, finally LEARNED your lesson, the HARD way, and, by not paying the fares, you were, overcome with that sense of guilt, because you did something ILLEGAL, something IMMORAL, and, once, you’d gotten caught, doing it, abroad, and that, was enough, for you, to STOP trying to take advantage of the systems.