Back to the old train station.

A story written from this image writing prompt.

 

For the 15^th time in less than a month and a half, I wake up panting in a pool of sweat remembering the same dream. I’m not one to be superstitious, I don’t even believe in anything that doesn’t have actual facts, but… since moving back to my home town, it’s like this dream is haunting me. I can’t go a day without thinking about them and I can’t go a night without seeing them in my dreams one way or the other.

 

I lay back down and look out the window to the shiny full moon staring back at me on a heavily stared sky. I remember uncle Ben’s words as we were moving back in.

 

“This will be good for you. You’ve been missing them so much lately and it shows in your mood; you’re not the way you used to be anymore. At least here you can maybe feel close to them, right?”

 

Tears roll down my eyes for no apparent reason, just like it’s been happening for I don’t know how long now. I don’t really feel anything, and yet my body says otherwise. I’m really grateful that uncle Ben tried his best to make it look like he just wanted the best for me, but he couldn’t hide the fact that we just moved back here because of his new job opportunity that just had to coincidentally be in this town. At least one of us is happy, I guess. Not that I’d be happy anywhere else anyway.

 

I look over at the clock on my night table and it’s almost time to stand up already. I lay in bed staring at the moon for the couple of minutes I have until the alarm goes off and I have to start a new day on the same school my parents went to, with the people that can’t hide the pity they feel for me.

 

Their image doesn’t leave my mind. The way they waved at me from their seat on the train as its engine started; the kiss mom blew at me and how I caught it while uncle Ben smiled and patted my back letting me know I’d be fine with him and it’d only be a couple of weeks until my parents would be back. Except they didn’t even have the chance to leave.

 

Uncle Ben yelling at me snaps me out of it saying that it’s time to leave; he shakes his head and sighs.

 

“I rather walk to school today, if that’s ok.” I say without taking my eyes off the full cereal bowl in front of me.

 

He sighs. “You’re 15, it’s not like you’re a defenseless little kid that can’t walk on his own anymore.” He says as he washes his dishes. “But please eat something before you leave.”

 

He strokes my short hair and kisses my forehead before leaving. I smile, appreciating his affection, but my face doesn’t reflect that.

 

.

 

It’s been over 12 years since we all walked to that train station for my parents to temporarily work a few towns over. Of course, I’ve looked up its location probably a thousand times as I grew older; I wanted to make sure I could always go back to it when my parents came back. What an imagination I used to have.

 

The distance walking from the house should be over 2 hours to the same train station that is now closed and abandoned. I put a few water bottles in my backpack and several energy bars.

 

This is a bad idea, I know that. There’s nothing I can find there that will help me in any way. And yet, I don’t even think about it twice before leaving the house and turning the opposite way to where my school is.

 

I wear a hoodie and a hat to cover myself and hope no one notices me and asks me where I’m going. In such a small town, everyone knows everyone and even their schedules. But it’s pretty early and the sun is not fully out yet, so maybe no one will notice me.

 

.

 

An hour and a half walking and I make it out of the suburbs and into an empty high way that no one drives by. My feet feel like they’re about to bleed at any minute now, but the station is not that far, so I pay no attention to it.

 

The sky is cloudy and there’s heavy breeze that makes it difficult to walk for a small person like me, but I push through it. Maybe there’s a storm that they didn’t predict on the TV.

 

I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten to where I’m supposed to turn right to get to the train station, but I see no sign of any path and the highway is actually closed off with steel bars. I trust my instinct and jump through it to walk straight ahead into nothing other than hay.

 

As I near the station, my dream plays in my mind over and over again. I can almost feel my mom kissing me goodbye before getting into the train. Why did you ever have to go in that train at that time, mom, why?

 

I feel my dad’s hand stroking my then long hair and winging at me. “We’ll be back before you know it.” He said without realizing his mistake.

 

Water starts falling from the sky, my hat blows away with the heavy wind and my face gets soaking wet from the rain and my tears, I can’t tell the difference anymore.

 

I enter a small forest full of tall trees and yelling birds. I’m almost there, I can feel it. I run forward like my life depends on it. No, not my life, my parent’s life. I need to save them. I have to do something, they need me!

 

The wind switches direction and pushes me forward even faster, my face slightly bleeding from crashing against low hanging branches. I finally come out of the forest.

 

My eyes stare through the rain into the train station that is barely standing. All the hurricanes we’ve had through the years have really hit it hard, I almost don’t recognize it. My body abruptly feels the cold, as if my heart and blood flow would stop.

 

I push my eyes away from the station building and search through the train track. “Mom, dad,” my lips move, but no sound comes out.

 

“We’re right here, honey!” I hear my dad’s voice.

 

“Come with us, we should have never left you behind.” Mom says as I see her standing in the middle of the tracks extending her hand out waiting for me.

 

My feet start moving towards her without my mind processing any of it. It’s so beautiful. The train tracks are buried under dirt, grass and growing trees. I would not recognize what this was if I didn’t know it already. Walking to my family, I walk through a green path as the breeze and rain intensify. Plants surround me and I can only see bright light green.

 

Whoever said heaven is blue, clearly hadn’t seen it yet, I think as the tunnel collapses from above me. And so I’m finally in the place where I belong and can be happy. With my family.

Author's Note

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