Sitting on the train not knowing
what to write, nor even what to do, this adventure begins. For this boy had never ridden a train before,
this boy had never been alone before.
What is a boy to do on the train?
What is a boy to do alone?
Naturally he looks around to see what other people are doing on the
train, but there is such a variety of things to do. What to choose, the boy knows not.
But at the same time a girl sits on
the train with her headphones in, noticing a boy quite near to her age with
eyes darting quite unnervingly.
Intrigued by the boy's unusual appearance, the girl wonders what to do as
well; whether or not to approach the boy, she knows not.
The boy sees the girl as well, but
he is lost in his observances, as the train bobs and shakes the boy begins to
become frightened. Looking left, then
right, out the window, down the aisle, to the ceiling and back down to the
floor, he breaks a nervous sweat.
Again the girl glances in the boy's
direction, perhaps the boy was not alright.
He looked awfully scared and ill at ease on the train. She made up her mind, stowing her ipod, she
stood up and walked to take the seat next to the boy. She whispered calmly to comfort the strange
boy, “Are you alright?”
Absolutely startled by the girl's
approach, the boy did not know how to respond.
The jumble of words that stumbled from the boy's mouth lacked any sense,
as far as the girl could tell, but the boy seemed to be calming. The girl's golden brown eyes pierced him, not
sharply or invasively, but their hypnotizing beauty left the boy speechless for
just a moment until he was able to quietly ask, “Who are you?” with a hint of intrigue.
The girl was taken aback by the
boy's sudden change in demeanor. It was
her turn to be confused, to be lost. She
had never been at a loss for words, especially with boys, but she felt as if
she was choking on her heart beating too quickly for her to still be
alive. She tried to look away, but the
boy's dark green eyes held her golden brown orbs as moss grips the bark of a
tree.
The boy noticed the girl's
uncomfortable demeanor as the train stopped.
He got up and ran; he ran as fast as he could out the door. He tore through the station, fleeing
rejection, just as he had fled his parents.
He ran sweat dripping down his face, so he thought, and didn't stop
until he had left the station four blocks behind him. He bent over and wiped the streaming tears
from his face; men don't cry.
The girl had not know the boy, not
his hometown, his interests, nor even his name, yet she wept. She wept darker and deeper lines than the
Exiled King.
The girl returned home that night,
barely controlling her tears. The boy
found a park, and a bench comfortable enough to sleep on, but did not sleep.
She couldn't let down her father,
who had taken care of her and supported her desires from the day her mother
left them. Feeling weak in every joint,
she forced herself out of bed the next morning, but couldn't bring herself to
get on the train to school. She could
not. She walked through the chill brisk morning toward a friend's house, a
friend with a car. The rest of her
senior year in high school she continued to travel to school this way,
canceling her train pass.
The boy needed to find a job the
day after he ran away, but he could not shake thoughts of the girl from his
mind. He decided to use the remainder of his money to take the
train into the city to find a job, the same train that the girl would have
taken. The boy got a job at a grocery
store cash register, and took that same train into work everyday.
With school, friends, and her art,
the girl put thoughts of the boy out of her mind, or at least stowed them
deeper in its archives for the remainder of her senior year. Her friends encouraged her to date someone
who had shown interest in her, and she was content in his arms. He made her smile and seemed to have a bright
future. Preparing for a graduation the
couple had decided to go to Wally's market to pick up a handle of Grey Goose
and a 24-pack of Corona with her boyfriend's fake ID. It was after all a special night, and the
boyfriend thought tonight maybe his lucky night. Waiting in line, he leaned in for a peck from
the girl, who of course willingly obliged.
The clerk was looking their way, and when they turned again to face
forwards and the two locked eyes, the boy behind the counter and the girl
waiting in line.
Gripped by a fit of irrational fury
the boy reached across the counter and seized the boyfriend's shirt and threw
him to the floor landing on the shattering beer bottles cutting him all
over. The boy was frightened, with his
job out the window and possible criminal charges on his hands already, he
opened the register, took everything he could and fled. He fled again.
Stunned, standing stock still for
just a moment before she decided to chase the boy, but as soon as she was out
the door of the market there was no trace of the boy but a dollar bill floating
to the ground just yards away. She
picked up the dollar when it landed and put it in her pocket before returning
to the store in a state of shock. Lost
in her own mind as sirens and bustling men in uniforms swarmed in raising
someone onto a stretcher.
Someone....someone she knew perhaps.
Lost in herself as the stretcher passed a hand stretched out as it
passed her, she responded, still in the semi-conscious dream state of shock, by
following it to the ambulance.
The boyfriend recovered, but the
girl did not. When the tears continued
to come at night despite the full recovery of her boyfriend, she knew something
was wrong, and so did her boyfriend, leaving her just a week after recovering
from the incident. She was lost to all
and everything but her art.
Again the boy found himself running
into the night, but this time blood was streaming down his face. The shattering glass had gotten to him as
well. He returned to his motel room and
gathered his things to leave, to find a new motel. There he lived with his little savings, but
struggling to find a new job. He could
not focus in interviews and money was dwindling. All he could do is result to thievery.
Years passed, the girl studying art
at a university in the city, where the boy slummed around the streets. They were so close, but they never knew it.
The boy began with shoplifting, but
worked his way up to corner store hold ups with a group of men he came to call
friends. One night they were to rob a
corner store across the street from the downtown train station.
The girl had finished class for the
day, and she was walking to the station that would take her home. She decided to stop at the store to get some
things for the ride home. While she was
at the register, a gang of men charged through the door to the register.
The boy did not see her, for he was
the last one through the door. After
bursting through the door, it was all business, shouts and gunshots filled the
air, and the boy waited for it to end holding the door open for his comrades,
but once his field of vision cleared he saw the girl lying on the floor shaking
from fear. He could not let her see him
like this, so again he ran, he ran far and hard. The boy refused to return to that
lifestyle. The next day he enrolled in
the city police academy.
About a year later, after
background checks and training, the boy finally stood up before an audience and
graduated the academy, as a policeman with comrades like none he had ever
known. That night was a celebratory one
in which all the graduates went out on the town together. They went to bars and clubs having fun, being
loud, and enjoying themselves.
The girl had just finished her
first art gallery showing to great success, so she decided to go dancing with
her girlfriends from art school. They
went to different clubs, trying to find the most fun one, when she saw him at
the bar with a few others. She had no
idea what to say to him, so instead of approaching him she just waited for him
always in sight, until a man approached her offering a drink drawing her
attention away. She rejected him softly
and kindly, but when she looked up the boy was gone.
He had gone to the bathroom, unsure
of himself or what to do after seeing the same girl he had terrified nearly a
year ago had scared him nearly as much.
It took him some time to get the courage to go back out, but when he did
he looked around, she was on her way out.
He ran after her before he lost his nerve, and caught her arm gently,
just before she walked outside. He asked
her in a quiet raspy voice, “One dance? Please?”
All she could do was look at him
shocked and slightly confused, but after a moment she nodded. She took his hand and led him to the dance
floor.
They danced with all the passion of
two lovers, but with the fluidity of a single being. Soon they joined in a long-awaited embrace,
an embrace in which the boy picked her up and carried her out of the club. He took her to a taxi, and they both got
in. He brought her home, and went inside
with her.
After a night full of passion and
emotion, the boy lay awake beside the girl in her bed. He could not look at her now for every time
he did he thought of the sheer terror he had caused her, how he had hurt her. He fled, for he did not wish to do it again.
She awoke with tears in her eyes
for she had dreamt that he had left her, and felt the light breeze on her
cheeks from the closing of her bedroom door.
He was gone.
He began work; he worked whenever
he could, and took all the available overtime so that he may keep his mind off
the girl that had stolen his heart so long ago.
For nearly six weeks it seemed as though he did nothing but eat, sleep,
and work.
The girl was two weeks late; she
stood in line at the pharmacy, pregnancy tests in hand. She left the store with a tear in her eye
thinking of the boy she had given herself to so wholly. Walking to the train station alone, she was
followed.
The boy was on patrol near the
train station where he first fled the girl that took over his mind. He decided to go see it again, after having
avoided it for so long. He began
walking, and was just around the corner when he heard a scream, and he broke
out in a full on sprint.
They had her pinned against the
wall, one with their hand over her mouth to stifle the scream. They already had her purse, but they wanted
more.
When he rounded the corner, the boy
saw a masked man reaching to pull up her skirt.
Enraged, he pulled out his pistol and shot the first man, but the second
had a gun and let off a shot. The shot
hit, but only in the arm causing him to drop his gun, while he yelled, “Run!”
She ran for safety to the station
to use a phone, she called for the police, and then ran back outside to see the
thief had run and the brave officer lay on the ground gasping, blood rolling down
his neck he couldn't speak as the life left him. He could only lock eyes with the girl he had loved, for now he realized it was
love.
His dark green eyes locked on her
golden brown ones, the girl sobbed and said to him through the sirens in the background,
“I'm having your child.” His eyes closed
and breathing stopped, he died happy, he died a hero.
