Eric--Part Eight

Splog # 42

Eight

   Eric stood looking up among the trees and tried to catch sight of the figure in white. All he could perceive was a mass of tangled branches. He noticed that the leaves were mostly yellow and brown and thought that was rather odd for the beginning of summer. Then it crossed his mind that possibly, wherever he was, it wasn't the same time of year it had been where he came from. Or maybe the seasons were different. He knew that, below the equator, summer and winter were the opposite of what they were in northern latitudes. Of course, it was a comfortably warm temperature that felt like summer. Then he realized that he had let his attention wander and resumed his search for the white figure. It didn't help that the sky behind all the branches was also white so that, at any distance, a white figure would just blend into it.

   After a fruitless search of the area above him, Eric brought his head back down to see that there was a patch of white through the trees ahead. He waited a moment to see what it would do, but it remained motionless. While watching, a sound began to intrude on his consciousness. It started low and could have been wind moving through the trees. He took a quick glance up but everything was still. He immediately brought his eyes back to the glimpse of white in the distance and it was still there. The sound was growing louder as of something moving closer. It was a rough, deep sort of sound, maybe wheels moving over ground. Again he removed his eyes from the white spot, this time to take a quick look around him. There didn't seem to be any space among the trees that a wagon or a cart could pass through. When he looked back, the white spot was still there so he figured he'd try to approach it. He began to walk forward slowly and as quietly as he could, keeping himself focused on the one touch of white that he could see among the somber colors of the forest.

   Moving forward, he started to see more and more white as he passed trees or bushes that had been blocking his view. And the noise finally resolved itself into the sound of voices singing. It sounded like a crowd of men, though every once in a while he thought that he could distinguish the clear high tones of a woman mingling with the deeper ones. And he saw a wall rising before him - a white wall. Just as he realized that it must be the side of a building, his foot struck something other than the leaves and dirt and small stones that he had been wading through. He looked down and almost laughed when he saw a steel rail that was matched by another some feet across from it and that made of themselves a pair of railroad tracks. He had been following a mysterious figure through a strange wood under a white sky and had ended up at a building beside some train tracks that had people inside it singing. It was unexpected and somewhat anti-climactic but it was a good chance to find out where he was and maybe even how he had gotten there.

   So he stepped across the rail to move towards the building but, as soon as his foot touched down, the singing stopped. He paused in surprise and looked at the wall ahead of him. The white started slowly to change. It turned a light gray and then started deepening through other shades of gray, gradually getting darker and darker. Then a new sound started - the chugging of a locomotive. It very swiftly grew in volume and Eric quickly looked right and left to see which way the train was coming. He saw nothing but realized that it didn't matter. The important thing was to get off the tracks. He practically jumped over the other rail and started to run so he'd be away from the force of the train passing.

   But, as soon as his foot touched ground outside of the train tracks, the sound stopped. He'd gone a few steps before he could pull himself up short and look behind him. No sight or sound of a train. Voices in song coming from the building behind him, but complete stillness along the train tracks.