Lena was running late. She had planned to catch the 9:15 train to Brighton to visit her sister, but she had overslept. When she finally reached the station, it was already 9:12.
She ran to the ticket machine, bought her ticket, and rushed to Platform 3. Just as she reached the steps, she heard the train doors closing. With a loud sigh, she stopped and watched the train pull away.
Lena sat down on a bench, annoyed with herself. She had really wanted to surprise her sister, who didn’t know she was coming. Now she would have to wait for the next train, which wasn’t until 10:00.
As she waited, an older woman sat down beside her. The woman smiled and said, “Missed your train?”
Lena laughed a little. “Yes, I did. I was too slow this morning.”
The woman nodded. “Sometimes things happen for a reason. Maybe you were meant to catch the next one.”
They began to talk. The woman’s name was June. She was going to visit her granddaughter, who had just started university in Brighton.
Lena and June chatted for nearly 40 minutes. They laughed, shared stories, and discovered they had both grown up in small villages.
When the 10:00 train finally arrived, they got on together and sat in the same carriage. By the time they reached Brighton, they felt like old friends.
As they said goodbye, June smiled and said, “I’m glad you missed your train.”
Lena smiled back. “So am I.”
📦 Vocabulary
| Word/Phrase | Meaning |
| running late | not on time, behind schedule |
| platform | the area at a train station where you get on or off a train |
| pull away | (of a vehicle) to start moving |
| annoyed | feeling a little angry or frustrated |
| meant to | supposed to |
| carriage | a part of a train where passengers sit |
| felt like old friends | felt very comfortable with each other, as if they had known each other for a long time |
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