Sometimes life takes an unexpected twist. In my business, I am paid an awful lot of money to forecast the unexpected, take the ‘un’ out of uncertainty and at the same time make a shed load of money as a result. Even so there are times when even my crystal ball gazing misses something. The prospect of that is what makes me get out of bed each day and come into work.

My name is Gordon McLeish. I live and work in New York, New York, USA. See I’m getting my own back on my American hosts who insist of suffixing London with England when showing a picture of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the River Thames. Is there some London out in the boonies of the USA what has a duplicate building, river and everything? Pah. Just one of the annoyances that I have to live with to earn a daily crust. There are many others mostly based on what seems to be uniquely North American thing called Fraternities and what college went to. As I didn’t go to any University other than the ‘University of Life’ I’m not and never can be part of their club. Still, I’m only here for a while longer but more about that later.

I’m from Scotland, not England as even my colleagues forget despite my broad South Glasgow accent. I currently work for a multi-national bank in NYC as a trader. That means I make deals relating to the rise and fall of stocks that are traded markets around the world. I did work in London but the bank decided that NYC would be a better place to do my job despite it being in totally the wrong time-zone to work with the Tokyo, Hong Kong and all the other Asian exchanges.

Despite not having a University Education, I can speed read and digest a company annual report and all their other official documents with ease and what is more importantly, make pretty good guesses on what was left out of their documents. I consider the writing of annual and other formal company report a form of modern art. Most of the time, the contents on the page are strictly for the amateurs and hacks. It is what isn’t there is the real report. Many Fortune 500 companies are real masters of hiding the real problems in a company while shouting the positives from the rafters.

Based upon my understanding of those reports, a few guesses and a lot of intuition, my present employers seem to think that I’m pretty good at my job insofar that I made them a heck of a lot of money last year and I’m doing much the same this one.

I do however ask myself almost on a daily basis why I don’t quit and get another job back home. The answer to that is I am virtually my own boss. Because I make so much money for the bank on my desk, I have my own profit and loss line. The downside is that I have to share an office with a team of other traders. I’m a quiet sort of person but this lot are whooping and a hollering almost all the day. I regard it as a bit of one-upmanship.

The story of how my life in the Big Apple changed forever really begins on Labor Day weekend. By 5pm on the Friday, Wall St was shutdown for the long weekend and the office was deserted apart from me, the last man standing. I was finishing up some programmed trades on a few of the major foreign stock exchanges for the following Monday. If that went well, I’d have made a between $13M and $18M for the bank before the traders here lit their BBQ’s on Monday afternoon or watched their sports on TV.

---

Just before 6:30pm, I shut everything down and left the office ready to head home for the weekend.

The lift bell pinged and I stepped forward not expecting someone to want to get off.

“Oh, sorry,” I said as we bumped into each other.

I stepped back and recognised the person I’d bumped into.

“Ms Jenkins. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t expecting anyone to want to get off at this floor.”

She smiled back at me.

“Mr McLeish? Why aren’t you already somewhere nice for the weekend like everyone else.”

“Just leaving now. I had a few trades to setup for Monday.”

“Monday? It’s the holidays remember?”

“It might be here but London and Tokyo and pretty well the rest of the civilised world is open for business on Monday. Why are you coming back to the floor? Shouldn’t you be at home with your son by now?”

She did a bit of a double take.

“I… I forgot Luke’s present. I was distracted by Wendy-Sue. It was her last day before her baby is due.”

“Ah yes. Did you give her a good send off?”

“We did. But I needed come back for Luke’s present. It is his Birthday on Sunday.”

“Well go on then. I’ll wait here and walk you out.”

“There is no need.”

“It will be my pleasure.”

I waited in the Lobby while Ms Jenkins went off to retrieve her son’s birthday present.

When she returned, I pressed the button to call a lift.

“Your son is a bonnie looking bairn. No mistake.”

“Eh? Bairn?” she replied in surprise.

“Oh sorry. Bairn means child in Scotland. That photo on your desk shows a very happy boy.”

“Thank you, Mr McLeish. It was taken at Steamtown last year. He’s mad about trains. His Uncle in London sends him a Thomas the Tank Engine Book every so often.”

“I used to have the complete set when I was his age. I was obsessed with being the ‘Fat Controller’ one day but having the name ‘Gordon’...”

Then I smiled at her.

“I obviously failed, didn’t I?”

We both laughed as the bell sounded to announce the arrival of the lift.

---

The city was very quiet but swelteringly hot. After a pretty sleepless night on Saturday, I raised up the white flag and decided to leave the place and go somewhere hopefully not quite as hot or as humid. I hailed a taxi just after 06:30 and got it to take me to Kennedy Airport. I wasn’t flying anywhere but I was going to rent a car for a couple of days. I wasn’t heading for the beaches of Long Island or New Jersey but instead, I was heading inland towards Pennsylvania.

My hunch proved correct and while there was a good crowd of people at my destination it was nowhere near as crowed as it would have been at the coast. Very soon I was in my element, surrounded by sleeping beasts. I’m referring to the exhibits on show in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. They were all crying out to me, ‘make me live again’. The machines were built to steam and travel the iron roads of the Country as living fire breathing beasts not lying dead in Museums.

I shook myself out of my depression and began to admire the workmanship and sheer craft that had gone into their construction. It did make me wonder about the people who’d worked their asses off to build them. Some of those fire and water breathing beasts only had a very short service life as they were replaced by smelly Diesels after just a few years.

After a while it got a bit depressing. There was no doubt that I was missing ‘Lucy’. ‘Next year’, I said to myself, ‘next year’. I left the Museum and went across the road to where there was one of these beasts in steam on the Strasburg RR. Seeing, smelling and hearing a loco at work would make me happy again until I could return home that is.

I was watching the Loco ‘run-round’ between trips when I felt a tug on my trousers. I looked down and saw a small boy looking up at me.

“Mister, my Mommy wants to know if she can buy you a soda?”

I looked around and to my surprise, I saw Ms Jenkins standing a few feet away. She was smiling at me.

“Ms Jenkins? What on Earth are you doing here?”

She smiled.

“I could say the same for you? Please call me Maureen. We aren’t at work now.”

I laughed.

“Please call me Gordon and I’m just visiting the Railroad Museum and taking a ride on the Strasburg Railway. Much like you I suppose.”

I looked at her and said,

“Your turn.”

“I’m taking this little one for his first ride on a steam train. My parents live only an hour away so we came down from the city yesterday and… well, here we are.”

“Well, it is really nice to see a friendly face. Let my buy you both a drink?”

I knelt down to get to the child’s eye level.

“You must be Luke. Happy Birthday and I hope you get to see Thomas one of these days.”

“Thank you but Mommy says that Thomas is a long, long way away.”

“Thomas travels on rails. He may come to you one day.”

“I hope so.”

We boarded the train a little later for the journey to the picnic area. Luke waved at the train as it left the little station. Lots of passengers waved back which seemed to make his day. It certainly made Maureen’s day. She was beaming from ear to ear.

We returned to the depot on the last train of the day. I was happy to see that Maureen and her son had enjoyed my company.

“Thank you for a lovely afternoon,” I said once we had alighted from the train at the Depot. “It was most unexpected meeting you here but very enjoyable. Luke seemed to enjoy himself as well.”

“Are you going back to the City now?” asked Maureen.

“Not tonight. I’ve a room in a motel just of I-95 near Newark.”

“Newark? Why not go home? You are almost there.”

I grinned back at her.

“Sorry, Newark Delaware. I want to do some shopping at the Mall tomorrow and not pay the New York sales tax.”

She laughed back at me.

“You really are on the ball aren’t you.”

“Us canny Scots have a bit of a reputation when it comes to money. I’d be a fool not take the opportunity when it presents itself so close by.”

“Why not come home with us. My Mom will have plenty of food if I know her. They only live fifteen minutes from I-95. Her food will be an awful lot better than some fast food joint.”

I thought for a second or so. Then I heard,

“Please come Gordon. Grandpa would love to hear about when you saw Thomas and the Fat Controller.”

For half a second, I hesitated. Then I looked at Luke’s face.

“If you are sure it won’t be any trouble then I will. Thank you for the offer.”

“Yay!” came the cry of obvious pleasure from Luke.

The evening was very enjoyable once I’d persuaded Maureen’s father that I did not have any romantic intents towards his daughter. I explained that I was only in the Country for a limited time and furthermore, we had to work together in a place where workplace romances were very much frowned upon.

Thankfully, Maureen backed me up by recounting the time when a couple were both ‘let go’ just two days after they’d announced their engagement. It was that sort of place.

---

The following morning, I went to Christiana Mall to do my shopping. Yes, paying no sales tax was part of the reason I was here, but only part. The other part was to be able to buy what I wanted without risking being seen by anyone from work. Even though Maureen’s family were not that far away, any fears that I would accidentally bump into her had been allayed by the invitation from her father to attend the community BBQ lunch. I already knew about it and that Maureen would be expected to help out at the event so I felt safe in declining the invitation and going shopping instead.

I headed into Neiman Marcus less than fifteen minutes after the store opened. I knew what I wanted and thanks to the Internet, I knew that this store had it in stock. Twenty minutes later I was back at my car and thinking about the drive up I-95 back to New York when a voice said,

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that.”

I turned towards the voice and saw Maureen watching me with a huge grin on her face.

For an instant, my heart stopped. I knew better than to try to fib my way out of the situation so I fessed up.

“You got me bang to rights. My alter ego likes to dress and live as a woman.”

“I wondered if it was something like that. Very few men shave other than body builders their armpits.”

“So, what now? You tweet the office or something like that?”

Maureen smiled.

“Don’t be silly. You are a nice man and now I know why you are. The fact that you never came on to me despite me giving you the hint that I’d be receptive said to me that you were either gay or… Well, the ‘or’ won out didn’t it.”

I was taken aback by her statement. She was right on the nail. She had given me a few hints but being here for such a short time, I ignored them.

“You don’t mind?”

“Why should I?”

“Because I’ve lost a good few girlfriends after they find out about me.”

“You don’t fancy men then?”

“God no. Ugh!”

Maureen laughed.

“You Brits are certainly different from us.”

“Why?”

“You are so buttoned up. You don’t let your true feeling show even for an instant.”

I knew that she was right. The team in the office had tried to get me to loosen up but I wasn’t really into their silly antics. They all seemed so immature to me. I just kept my head down and waited until it was time for me to return to London. That day was not that far away now.

“You got me again. But if I did show the real me, how long do you think that I’d last at work? You know how very conservative the company we work for is in their outlook especially towards romantic relationships. Eyebrows would be raised at the mere thought of us having a relationship. I’m already an outsider and there are several people who would like to see the back of me so I keep my head down, make some money for the bank and count down the days until I can go home.” I replied.

“So, what now?” she asked.

I didn’t answer so she answered for me.

“I’m going to the BBQ. You can come along if you want but otherwise, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Eh? Is that it?”

“That is what?”

“Don’t you want to see me dressed up and with nowhere to go? Them make fun of me and other stuff?”

Maureen smiled and came up close to me.

“You really don’t get it do you eh?”

“Get what?”

“Jesus Gordon! Do I have to spell it out?”

My mind was running around in circles and getting nowhere.

“I fancy you Gordon. Actually, even more now that I know about the real you.”

“You are having me on?”

“Really? How about this eh?”

Before I could even think of a reply, she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a long passionate kiss.

“Well? That good enough to start with?” she said slightly breathlessly when we broke apart.

I didn’t answer right away.

“What cat got your tongue?”

“Thank you.”

“Thank me? Why you are a good kisser.”

I looked at her and saw a determined woman. That scared me a little.

“It doesn’t matter. We could never be a couple here.”

“Why ever not?”

“Luke is why. Children are really bad at keeping secrets.”

“Luke can keep a secret believe me.”

I shook my head.

“I know from bitter experience they can’t.”

“You got outed?”

I nodded my head.

“Right in front of the whole school. The beating I took afterwards put me in Hospital for three weeks. That’s what I should have expected growing up in a former Steel Making town where men are men and women are women. Nothing else is acceptable.”

“Oh, you poor thing.”

“Then there is the small matter of me going back to London in what? Less than four weeks. My term here will be up.”

“And you don’t want to stay here?”
I shook my head.

“I’m retiring from trading as soon as my bonus is paid and I can cash in some stock options.”

“Then what are you going to do? Play with that steam engine?”

“Eh?”

“I’ve seen your screen saver. If I recall correctly, it shows a small steam engine.”

“That’s Lucy. She’s all mine and yes I’m going to finish restoring her and then drive her.”

“As a he or a she?” asked Maureen being as direct as ever.

“She. Steam Locos are like ships in that they are referred to in the feminine gender. It isn’t surprising given that men made them and drive and look after them.”

She smiled back at me.

“You have it all worked out, don’t you?”

I didn’t answer.

“But I know that you will get lonely. So, what about it eh? I’ll accept you whoever you appear to be.”

“Now you are being silly. You don’t know me from Adam.”

“Oh yes Adam. Adam is a, what you Brits call it? A wanker, a plonker and a numpty but I don’t know what those mean but it sure sounds good.”

Adam Strong was one of the so-called rising stars of the department. Several times he had tried to steal my trades and take credit for the profits they generated. Once I had to publicly rebuke him by asking him about how he came to the decision to buy that particular stock. He couldn’t reply with anything coherent. He couldn’t because the stock was traded on the Shanghai Composite Index which was outside his normal trading region. No one liked him. Maureen’s description of him was very accurate.

“I can’t Maureen, I’m sorry.”

I didn’t wait for a reply as I got into my rental car and took off back to the big city where I could lose myself in the hordes of people.

The drive up I-95 was a blur. It was a wonder that I didn’t crash but somehow, I managed it and got back to the relative safety of my apartment in the late afternoon. The shopping bag with my dress in it sat on the floor right by the front door where I’d dropped it. There really was no point in even hanging it up now.

By late evening, I’d recovered just enough composure to be able to take my Rental back to the airport. It had been quite a weekend.

[to be continued]
[Authors Note]
The idea for this story came to me when I visited the Museum and travelled on the RR in September 2015 after attending a week long Technical Seminar in Sandusky, Ohio. I did go shopping at the Mall the following day and bought the MacBook that I've used for writing my stories ever since.