Neil Gaiman Waits for His Parents in a Train Station

Neil Gaiman can really tell a story. In this fourteen-minute bit for The Moth, he tells the tale of how he waited for his parents at Liverpool Street Station after returning home from Germany. And they never showed up.

It's delightful, smart, and a little scary around the edges, as Gaiman and his parents seem to swap roles in terms of who's an adult and who's a child. A sample: "I don't know how you went to school. I went to school by getting up and going, 'Oh my God, is that the time?', leaping in the car, and my father would say, 'We'll go the quick way.' ... Which involved driving down tiny country lanes, where only one car could go, round hairpin turns at 70 miles per hour, which would get me to school 'only' three or four minutes late."

My favorite part is around 13:00, when Gaiman describes his aunt's advice to "show them your passport" as a mode of free transport. Brilliant. If you like Neil Gaiman, or The Moth, or just nice little stories about life, enjoy: