[savr]

From a short story anthology I read 7-8 years ago. A man sells his soul to satan for a stopwatch. The deal is when he stops the watch, time will stop, and the man can live forever in that moment. He goes through life tempted several times to stop the watch, with his girlfriend, or later his son, but each time he waits for an even happier moment. His life goes downhill, until he's a drunk old bum who goes out back of a bar, falls on some railroad tracks and can't get up, and he's laying there with the train bearing down on him, agonizing over whether to stop the watch and live forever in that horrible moment or to let the train kill him and go to hell. Once again he waits too long and is killed. The train stops and the devil pulls the man into a passenger car, with all the other souls on their way to hell. He gloats, like, oh, I knew you'd never push it, now give it back. The man pushes the button so he'll live forever on the train with all the other sinners because he realizes that's where he'll be happy. Also, I think earlier in the story someone may have told someone else a story about a man whose soul was taken on a train full of sinners while he was sitting in a chair.. Maybe even the title has to do with a train, but I'm not sure. It's a vague impression, might not be the same story. Anyone recognize this at all? I remember it being good, I'd love to find it again!

[Funes]

"that hell-bound train" by Fritz Leiber