After my car broke down

I wandered for a while

Into a sleeping village

My phone was dead

I was looking for a light

You will find a phone

Outside the station

Said a woman

From behind a door

You cannot miss it

But miss it I did

As although I found

The partly unlit station

There was no phone box

Anywhere in the vicinity

It had started to rain

I should have stayed in my car

But near the waiting room

I found a small help point

When is the next train

Where to

Box Land Junction

23:13

This is also the last train

From South Otley today

My watch showed

That I just had over an hour to wait

I sat on one of the few dry benches

Are you waiting for a train mate

Yes my car has broken down

No trains run in either direction after eight

There is nothing until tomorrow morning

The help point has told me that there is a train

It stops here at 23:13 fast to Box Land Junction

Did you use the help point over there

Yes

It has not worked for years

But I did hear a voice

Telling me of the train

The stranger smiled

You might think this curious

But that box has been silent

For over twenty years

There are some local stories

Of happenings like yours

Where the box springs to life

And a disembodied voice

Can clearly be heard

Giving useless information

There is no power as the cables were removed

When the signals were last inspected

I think that you were trapped in a loop my friend

Perhaps so but it is very strange to say the least

My name is Peter Post and I run the Red Lion

In the next village you can ring from there

My car is parked under that tree

And that was that as the helpful stranger

Drove me to his pub where I contacted the AA

Within two hours I was home and dry

The disembodied voice had spooked me

I had been caught in a loop

There was no rational explanation

For what had happened

I never visited South Otley again

Neither the village or the station

As I have no reason to be there

But the voice still haunts me

Whenever I think about it