Sometimes I see things I can’t explain and I do seem to “attract” unusual types of people.
One occasion stands out for me more than any other, because of the weirdness of it all and the weirdness that followed! So this story starts off around 12 years ago, it was probably 2004.
I was working in London City and had half a day in the office and had to catch my train home around lunch time to get back to Harlow for an appointment.
I deliberately chose my carriage to try and maximise the chance of not having to sit next to another human being. After spending the morning inhaling a strangers chest hair during rush hour on the way to work, the prospect of an empty train carriage was pure bliss let me tell you! I could read my book without having to listen to anyone else’s one sided mobile phone conversation or smell second hand lunch food – hurray!
I was successful in my task and silently punched the air as I sat down in my seat.
So we pull away from London Liverpool Street, I open my book and breath in, feeling relaxed, knowing that everything is right in my little world and I can enjoy 45 minutes of “me” time.
At the next stop, Tottenham Hale, I look up as we pull into the station and notice one lady get onto the carriage that I’m sitting in. My heart doesn’t fall here because, there are plenty of empty seats in this big old carriage, so, she can go wherever she likes can’t she….but she doesn’t does she? The woman decides to sit down next to me, which is an incredibly un-English thing to do I have to say. My awkwardness metre is about to go off the scale.
Now my mind is filled with questions such like “she’s got all these bloody seats that are empty and she sits next to me invading my personal space?”…or “what the hell is she doing? What if she is a psycho killer or something?”. By the way, I do need to warn you that once you get familiar with my blogs you may notice that in the past I have been a little over dramatic with my thoughts…this is something I’m working on.
As we pull away from the station I put my head down and resume with my reading. But you know that isn’t going to happen don’t you? Before I tell you about the conversation we have, let me describe this lady.
She is dressed eccentrically. So to me that’s, long skirt and blouse (colourful), nothing really matches, massive earrings, strange shoes. She has jet black hair and it’s very short. Big wide eyes, a friendly face.
“Hello!” she says with the enthusiasm of a friend I haven’t seen in years. I don’t need to explain my internal dialogue at this stage; you can imagine what I’m going through.
“Hello” I say back (meekly).
“What a lovely day! I’m just on my way to visit my brother in Cheshunt” says strange lady, whilst I think to myself (way too much information but great she’s getting off in a couple of stops!).
So, from this point until Cheshunt, this woman decides to speak to me non-stop, I really don’t have to contribute anything apart from a few yes’s, no’s and head shakes. She is as I would say in my hometown “on one” with this conversation and I have to be honest, I did question her mental health a few times during this whole experience. However I have to say, she seemed incredibly “with it”.
So what’s the point of this story in this blog? It’s what’s she said to me, during the 15 minutes or so we sat together, that struck me as unusual. This is what she said that stood out (amongst other stuff):
“I’m going to visit my brother in Cheshunt. His house is a number thirteen and my brother and I are two of thirteen kids! My birthday is on the thirteenth, my mum and dads wedding anniversary is on a thirteen. My brothers favourite number is thirteen and so is mine. So, a thirteen isn’t unlucky is it?”
“Erm, no, well I suppose it is for some?”
“No! It’s not unlucky! Number thirteen is lucky, remember that, number thirteen is your lucky number too!”.
Then, we pull up to Cheshunt, she says goodbye and gets off the train.
I just sat there and thought, what the hell has just happened? What was that even about? Who was that woman and was she even real? It was just so extraordinary.
I told Craig when I got home and was met with the response “so you saw a nutter on the train, how is this different from any other day?” (he was right, in ten years of commuting I had seen a man shouting “God is death!” and hitting a baseball bat against the window, an albino elf like human being with translucent eyes staring at me when I awoke from a nap on the tube and a man in a tracksuit being chased by two men in suits with rubber gloves on, to name a few). So it was brushed off as nothing.
But the story doesn’t end there.
A couple of weeks later, myself, Craig and our friends went to a local charity event in Hoddesdon. It was a casino night where everyone gets dressed up and can gamble, all in the name of charity.
I had never been to one of these nights before, in fact I had never been into a casino before, I didn’t have the first clue how to play Roulette or BlackJack.
But as the vino flowed, so did my confidence and after watching the Roulette table for a bit, I decided to give it a go.
So it’s simple really isn’t it, you buy some chips, you put your chip down on a number or colour, the table is spun and hopefully the little ball will land on your colour or number for you to win some chips back. Loosing bets are swept away and with this game, every time you won, you also received a small bottle of beer.
I start off tentatively but appear to be on a winning streak. The small bottles of beer are stacking up one by one (much to Craig’s satisfaction). I’m finding that this is an incredibly enjoyable pastime (but also having moments of “oh my God am I a gambler in waiting?” – yes that’s those over dramatic thoughts again).
The night is drawing on and it feels like I’m at the table for ages. My friends are coming over and applauding my Roulette skills and Craig doesn’t seem to care but I feel he is silently impressed.
Before long, I look up to see only a few of us left at the table with chips. So I continue, collect some more beer bottles and then suddenly see that there is me, and one other woman at either end of the Roulette table.
She’s eyeing up my beer bottles and I can see she has an impressive stack herself. She’s also checking me out, I can tell. The woman is about 40 years my senior and I reckon she has had her fair share of charity casino nights under her belt, there is no way she is going to let this little twenty something novice win the prize. And behold, the prize! A giant stuffed adorable dog. I wanted that dog quite badly, but so did she.
So what to do? She had a couple of chips left. I had a handful. It was time to choose.
I decided to make a bold move. I needed to clear this woman out. Immediately at this point, the black haired woman from the train came into my mind’s eye. The number thirteen in bright lights all around me. Another one of my “moments of clarity” and suddenly I knew why that stranger was important.
I placed all my chips on Black, Thirteen.
“Bold move Tanya” says Craig from behind me, the woman smirks and places all her chips on the table. It is do or die for us both.
The Croupier spins the wheel and we wait….and wait….until….
The little ball rolls and rolls and finally stops, on Black, Thirteen.
My opponent smiles at me through a death glare and my friends are cheering. I’m in state of quiet shock that I’ve just won a roulette table on my first ever attempt.
The gentleman who handed me my prize asked me if I worked as a Croupier. I found this highly amusing and told him, no, this was my first go.
“What?!? I have to say in all my years I have never seen anybody work the table like that, congratulations!” (although his choice of words did conjure up images of me pole dancing in Browns, I was touched by his kind words!).
So what does this all mean? Was this just another highly strange, but highly real “coincidence”?
I mean, it’s not as if I was gambling in a Las Vegas casino and had the chance to win about 3 million quid was it? I won a stuffed toy dog and about 15 bottles of out of date beer.
If this woman on the train was sent to give me this amazing message, that prompted me to put all my chips on Black Thirteen and win the table, it seems a little “far-fetched” doesn’t it? It’s not exactly life changing.
I don’t think this woman was a spirit; she was a normal human being. But I do think that she loves to talk to people and that she loves telling her thirteen story to people. So on that day, on my way home, she chose to tell me. But, I do also think she was meant too.
I believe my spirit team wanted to prove to me yet again that mysterious things can happen if we open ourselves up to it. That there is so much more at work that we can’t see.
Or maybe it was just purely a coincidence….but if so it will be one that I will never ever forget. I’m starting to stack up quite a few of them now!
Thanks again for reading and I’m looking forward to my next post already!
Please feel free to comment as I would love to hear what people make of this…
Thanks
Tanya
