Daniel knew he was just one worker of many that made the railroad run. He was not the conductor, the mechanic, or even the passenger. 

But he was the man who sold the tickets. 

Striding toward his booth, Daniel felt the same sense of gravity he always felt on his way to work. It was the feeling that with every ticket he handed out, lives were changing.

It was true that he did not make the trains run, but he was the one person who let hundreds of passengers get on the train and go someplace else. Daniel thought his work was good and knew his job was improving lives. But he also knew that the tickets he handed out could be responsible for destroying lives.

It was a heavy feeling — and the only thing to do was shoulder it as best as he could, as he took his customary seat in the ticket booth. A few individuals already stood in front of his table, waiting for their ticket onto the early train. 

As Daniel settled into his seat, he noticed something different about the young man who was first in line. He was a daily commuter — with long arms and legs that usually awkwardly stuck out of his shabby, second-hand suit. Today, though, he was wearing a brand-new suit and briefcase.

“Well, John!” Daniel said, “Had a good turn of fortune, did you?”

John smiled broadly, looking as pleased as punch, “Yes. I got promoted. Can you believe that? I only got the job last month!” 

Daniel, bending down to write John’s ticket out, smiled. “That’s good.” Even though Daniel was only paid to hand out tickets, he always took a few minutes to talk to the passengers and to learn their names. It felt like its own kind of responsibility.

John took the ticket Daniel handed to him, and half-turned away. But then he hesitated for a minute, before saying in a lower, serious voice to the ticket man, “I have to thank you. If you hadn’t written me a ticket as quickly as you did last September, I would never have made the train; I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

“Well,” Daniel said, at a loss for words, as John turned and made for the early train. Daniel wasn’t sure what to think, or what to say. He was just the man behind the counter, and it was rare that anyone besides himself believed that his job even made a difference in their lives. “Well.” He repeated, watching John disappear into the busy train station.

Shaking his head, a little stunned, but mostly happy, Daniel turned to help the next passenger.

As Daniel turned his attention to her, the young lady’s story seemed to jump out at him. Louder and clearer than any other passenger who had ever approached his ticket booth. 

Judging from her luggageless state, she was in quite a hurry. Her eyes darted all around the train station as if she was simultaneously hoping someone would be there and that they wouldn’t. 

Before Daniel could even ask her where she was going, she stopped casting furtive glances around and locked eyes with him. She said, “I’ve never been on a train before. You won’t be needing my name, will you?”

“Not at all,” Daniel assured her, “All I need is the place where you’re going.” He tried to hide his reaction, but her question was quite an unusual one. 

For some reason, this news both seemed to reassure her and make her more nervous. “Good,” she muttered quietly to the first, before wondering in a louder voice, “Where am I going?” She shook her head and smiled apologetically at Daniel. “If you’ll forgive me, I hadn’t even thought of where to go.”

Stranger and stranger still. Daniel had never handed out a ticket to a person who seemed to be in a great hurry to get away from something or someone but, at the same time, had no idea where to go. At this thought, Daniel felt something.

It wasn’t a thought or a question. But a feeling. A feeling that if the lady got on this train, it would not be good. It wasn’t the first time Daniel had experienced a feeling like this. He had felt something similar when John had first taken a ticket, but it was the strongest feeling he had ever had.

Acting on instinct, he looked at the person who had not given her name and suggested. “Why don’t you take some time to figure out where you’re going?”

She looked surprised by the suggestion, then seemed to stop and consider. Her eyes looked at something behind Daniel, and he knew she was looking at something else. After a second, she sighed and looked at the ground. 

In a quiet voice, she said, almost to herself, “What harm can it do?” Without another word, she left the train station, making room for the next passenger.

As Daniel watched her walk past the long line of potential passengers and out into the crowded streets, he knew that she would not be coming back, and that was for the best. 

Yes, he thought to himself, he wasn’t the conductor or a mechanic. But he was the last barrier between the people and the trains, and that was an important place to be.