Out of Time, Out of Place...

Sie walks into the pub, sie's a known face and is greeted warmly, ordering the same thing sie always does a large coke as it comes, sie smiles to hirself as sie walks away from the bar and the juke box starts playing Staying Alive just by chance. Sie takes hir usual seat in the corner of the bar by the fireplace, but the fire is never lit, it's just a place that has candles. When sie gets hir next drink sie also spent some time at the juke box picking out tracks, it's enjoyable as most of the music it plays suits hir tastes and sie can almost always find something to match hir mood. A while later the land lady calls round to the few that are in the pub that there are free cobs for the taking so sie goes to the bar and gets something to eat. It nice and very much appreciated as the last time sie ate it was in the city and sie doesn't like the atmosphere there, sie thanks the staff before returning to hir corner of the pub.

The fireplace reminds hir fondly of the tavern at home in the north, sie remembers driving a carriage across the moors in the twilight desperately trying to beat the darkness, looking thought the gathering darkness for the lights of hir home village and wanting to be already at the tavern by the fire with the coach and horses safely stabled for the night. Hir drivers coat billowing around hir as the whip cracks and the horses race to make it home, hir straining to keep hir balance as the carriage bounces down the track the suspension doing nothing for the passengers inside the carriage. Sie just wants to be inside the tavern sitting by the roaring fire while the winter batters at the door.

Sie picks up hir drink and takes another sip, it's cool, refreshing and strictly non-alcoholic, it's not that sie don't like a drink, it's just that it makes hir remember even more of the times past. Things sie doesn't want to remember, so sie has a habit of being a very depressive drunk so sie takes the simple option of just avoiding it and sticking to sugar that makes hir happy and giddy. But sometimes sie'll have a drink, but sie doesn't do these modern drinks, it cider or bitter for a pint of choice or if the situation calls for it a good cognac or liquor. But even that is changing, the days of sitting in a club with a conic and a cigar are gone, it's politically correct these days, but sie wonders how long that will last if life has taught hir anything it's that nothing lasts forever.

Next to hir sits hir bag, it's the mainstay of hir life, everything sie need to live for up to six days inside a bag sie can just throw over hir shoulder. On the outside of the bag is proudly pinned an oblong red badge bearing the words 'Engine Driver' the badge is new to hir but age old, it harks back to another life, sie spent hir time cleaning boilers before graduating onto shovelling coal and then finally to the heights of an engine driver. Sie can close hir eyes and still remember the sounds and smells of hir first solo trip in the A4, happily leaning on the regulator as sie thundered across the moors. It a relic of times past but in hir opinion it's better than the DEs that run the rails these days, back in the glory days or the 50s and 60s when rationing was over and there was some life, coal was plentiful and the engines proudly thundered up and down the country. Some how back then it was alive, you had to be part of the machine it was as much feeling as it was science, but now it's all science and all cold.

Hir life is a lot like that always changing always different, but it's only recently sie began to feel it getting cold. Sie's had hir fair share of bad memories, those that where lost before it was possible to do anything, those that where left in the field as they tried for a better future, and those who help was just too long coming. A tear comes to hir eye as sie remembers holding one of hir friend as he bled, unable to do anything but comfort him as he slipped away. Then sie did what sie could and made sure he didn't go alone and in pain now sie does all sie can and raises hir glass to those that have been lost.

Sie thinks back to the previous day and an off hand conversation with a friend, there was music playing so sie was absently dance what sie could of it. It was mostly modern music and the dancing people did to it sie wouldn't call dancing, but some of it was possible. Sie'd commented that it was a couple of months since sie'd been dancing and hir friend had said sie hadn't danced in a long time. It just seamed strange to hir that someone who was courting wouldn't have danced in a long time, but that's the world these days. Sie reasons to hirself that sie must make the time to go home and go out dancing before the end of the year. Music has always been a big part of hir life, sie can create it but prefers to be listening too it, once it was always live and in person, now sie can put hours worth of it onto something smaller than hir little finger nail. Sie misses live music but likes how portable it has become and that sie can take it with hir where sie goes. Hir tastes still run to older music, music that sie knows how to dance to and music that can make hir feelings known.

Inside the bag sits hir drivers folder, with hir still unfinished paper waiting for hir to finish it, sie must return it to the office tonight but sie can't draw up the enthusiasm to finish it. It reminds hir of work, it's not that sie dislikes hir work, sie loves hir job for the most part, even weeks like the one just gone where they sent hir to the metropolis twice. Sie doesn't like having to operate even in the outskirts of the metropolis, even travelling the orbital is frustrating work never mind going inside it. Sie'd much rather they send hir on the longer runs north, up past the angel, sie's much more at home up there infect the angel is not that far from where sie has a home. But work has force hir further south towards the cities and away from the life sie loves.

Another stark reminder of the life sie once lived was finding hir robe, and the people sie was with not really understanding that it wasn't for fancy dress it really was what was worn. Sie remembers being part of a coven, but over time sie drifted away from those beliefs, not entirely sie's still a witch at heart, but sie has hir own way. Sie has to with life these days sending hir all over the world at all times of year you found your own way of celebrating the Sabbaths.

Tomorrow sie has to work, sie'll have to be there before the sun even comes up as it's hir week to shunt everything around the yard before the others arrive and then sie's off on the road to who knows where. The life is hard but rewarding, in a few years sie'll have enough to live without this life and can once again move on and change. Sie's always moving on and changing in a world that seams to always stay the same these days.

The world is very fast these days, it's keep up or get left behind, sie always manages to keep up, but will always find time to return to hir home to the slower more peaceful way of life. There it is timeless, it always is as sie remembers it, and sie likes it that way, it's somewhere to retreat to when life in the real world has goten too much for hir. But while the world is fast it's unchanging, there was a time when the world was forever changing, when sie rigged sails and crewed on a tall ship that mapped the world, turning the unknown into known world and claiming lands that no one knew existed. Now the world is all known and all watched over nothing seams unknown these days to the few that know while those that don't are left behind with their unknown growing bigger all the time.

Sie's always been one of the ones who knows, sie is an edge witch, always on the edge, always looking, sie is grey, standing between the light and the dark and watches as the world moves. Walking that edge is a balancing act, sie knows ones who have fallen, some into the light, some into the darkness, but sie also know those who remain on the edge, always and forever.