Mostly True

It was a cloudless blue day in middle spring when Jim Wiest emptied the contents of his pockets and stacked his drivers license an ATM card and two folded twenty-dollar bills on the ground beside the railroad tracks. It was 4:02 in the afternoon and the CalTrans that runs from San Francisco to Old Sacramento was due through Pleasanton at 4:06.

He lay down cross-way over the tracks and waited.

This story is mostly true. I never leaned his real name and the time of day is inexact.

The people around town called it an accident. He must have fallen asleep, they said.
I live in Pleasanton, to be confused with Pleasantville.