"Before the Train, and After" response

I had a hard time understanding what happened throughout the story. From what I gathered, one of the main characters, Paul, was daring enough to show off to his girlfriend, Marty, by placing hand in front of the incoming train. As one could have guessed, his hand was severely torn up.
Then the most bizarre description came when it regarded to some creature that wanted to hold the hose to water the plants, which then helped the plants grow in a manner magically pleasant to the main character. I was under the impression that the main character and Paul were brothers since they seem to live in the same household. In addition, I thought the main character was male, but perhaps it's a "she" since there was mention of a husband. It's pretty hard to know when there's a woman named "Marty". Due to descriptions of kissing and the like, I wondered whether it was your usual affectionate brotherly love but perhaps it may be some sort of incest or homosexual relationship involved here. All in all, I seriously wonder if you need weed to actually visualize and understand the entire thing, because I most likely failed to understand any of it, if I had to give my honest opinion..