The tracks screeched as the train hurtled through the curve. "Is this normal?!" she screamed, "Are we going to die?"

"It's looking likely!" he shouted back as he tumbled into the roomette. Crawling on his knees, panic leapt into his eyes. He scanned the floor, sweeping his hands over the carpet, under the seats.

"What are you looking for?" she shouted as she braced herself in the hallway.

"Nothing. It's nothing. You know, at times like these, when disaster looms, we must ask ourselves what motivates us, what grand ideas guide us in our illusory walks towards our certain doom. What barriers prevent our union, our solidarity as humans. Now is the moment when we see in starkest detail the smallness of our rituals and the grandness of our passions. Now's the time to ask those illuminating questions, like, like, Ah-HAH!" he yelled in soliloquy, for when he lifted his eyes, grasping a tarnished, smallish silver ring adorned with tiny sapphires, his eyes exulted in success, admiring his luck.

"Like, Will you, my darling, marry me?"

"Not a chance sonny, I don't swing that way." Said the old man.