Image by anncapictures from Pixabay By Sara Casalino (July 2022)
I was walking inside an empty train, feeling confused, and wondering what I was doing here. Then I spotted a woman sitting in one of the seats. She was the only other person onboard. I hurried over to her and paused to catch my breath. “Excuse me,” I said. “Where is everyone?” The woman turned to look at me. “Hello,” she said. “I guess they have all gotten off at their stops.” “Where’s my stop?” I asked, feeling more and more anxious. “That depends,” she said. “Where are you headed?” “I don’t know,” I glanced at the floor. “Sit with me,” she invited me kindly. I sat down across from her. I studied her for a moment. She wore a light blue button-up shirt, black slacks, and had a black visor hat. I glanced at her name tag. “I’m Amelia,” she smiled at me. “Do you need to see my ticket?” I asked her. “No,” she smiled. “That’s not part of my job. That’s the train conductor’s job.” “Wait, if you’re not the train conductor, then who are you?” I asked her, feeling more and more disoriented as I looked around once again at the empty train. “I’m the driver,” she grinned at me. “The train engineer.” “Wait, but if you’re the driver, and you’re sitting here with me, then who’s driving this train?” I felt anxiety building up inside of me. She gave me a mysterious smile. “It’s so nice to be alone here,” she said, extending her arms out. “Peace and calm. This is exactly what we need. Sometimes instead of driving, I like to just sit back and relax and let the train take me wherever it goes.” I looked out the window at the moving scenery. “Yes, but surely someone’s driving this train,” I said again. “I was driving, but I decided to take a break,” she informed me. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re hiding something from me?” I asked her, willing her to tell me the truth. “Okay,” she said, putting her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands. “I didn’t want to tell you so as not to scare you.” “Tell me what?” I said, not comprehending. “No one is driving the train right now,” she said. “What?!” I stood up quickly and stared at her. “Sit down, you’re safe,” she said. I sat down with a thump. “But how? Are we safe?” I was getting more and more anxious. “You’re perfectly safe,” she said. “You’re here because you’re going somewhere.” “Are you for real?” I asked her. I felt awful that I couldn’t remember where I was headed. “This is a dream,” she said to me, watching my reaction. “Huh? No it’s not,” I said. “Look. I can touch the seat. It’s made of leather. I can touch the wall here. Everything feels real.” “What about the passengers? Where are they?” she asked me, raising an eyebrow. “They got off at their stops. That’s what you told me,” I was a bit suspicious of her now. “I told you what you expected to hear,” she slowly folded her arms. “But this is in fact a dream.” “No way,” I said. “Everything feels real.” “Then how did you come to be on the train?” she leaned towards me as if trying to look inside my mind. “I um…” I stopped, realizing I had no idea. “It’s a dream,” she said again. “Really?” I asked. “Yes, your dream is giving you a message. Do you know where you’re headed?” she asked. “No, I have no idea,” I confided to her. “Do you trust me?” she held out her hand. I hesitated. “I’m a train engineer,” she said. “My job is to make sure you arrive at your destination. Let’s go find out where you’re headed.” “All right,” I accepted her hand and we both stood up. She hurried down the train corridor and I followed after her. “We’re going to find out where this train is going,” she said. “You mean you don’t know?” I asked her. “I don’t. It’s your dream,” she said mysteriously. Suddenly we reached the last passenger car and stood there together for a moment, staring out at the scenery retreating behind the train. There was a lot of green and a beautiful lake in the distance. “Beautiful, isn’t it,” Amelia peered out at the scenery, seeming to take it all in. “I think we’re in the wrong place,” I told her. “If we want to find out where the train is going, we need to go to the front of the train.” “That’s the locomotive,” she said. “Hurry!” I grabbed her hand and pulled her along. We hurried quickly through the entire train, which seemed to take a long, long time. Finally we reached the first car of the train- the locomotive. “Quickly! Get in and drive!” I tried to push her towards the driverless chair. “This train is not for me to drive,” Amelia resisted. “This is your dream, remember?” “What am I going to do if I can’t reach my destination?” I pleaded with her. “I can’t stay here on this empty train forever. Please, I need you to drive me.” “But it’s your dream,” she repeated and turned to walk away from me. “But I don’t know how to drive a train!” I called after her. She stopped walking. “Yes you do,” she turned and gave another mysterious smile. “This is your life.” And then she walked away and shut the door behind her. I found myself all alone. I took a deep breath. “Okay, if this is a dream, then surely I can drive a train,” I said. I sat in the driver’s seat and hesitated when I saw all the controls. I had no idea what did what. “I guess I’ll have to experiment,” I said. I looked straight ahead out the window and saw that the coming tracks were forking in two different directions. I needed to decide which path to take. “I don’t know which one to take!” I said aloud. And then Amelia was right next to me. “If you hit that button, you’ll go left, and if you push that other button, you’ll go right.” “Okay,” I said, and then I noticed something. The track on the left led to a mountain, while the one on the right led to a cave. “Do you want the mountain or the cave?” she asked me. “Where do you want to live?” “Mountain or cave? I don’t even know what that means!” I tried to calm myself down. The fork in the tracks was coming up fast. “You must decide soon!” Amelia urged me. I wracked my brain. “Okay, do I want to live in a cave or climb a mountain? Is that the message? Neither of those sound good to me.” That’s when I noticed another button. It was blue and had a unique star shape. “What does this do?” I hurriedly asked her. “That’s not for me to say,” she replied. At the last second, I quickly hit the blue star button and the train didn’t veer left or right. It rose up off the tracks and into the sky and the scenery turned into clouds. I could hear the wind rushing by and I gazed at the various hues and colors in the sky. I let out a breath. For a few moments, I watched the beautiful sky and said nothing. Then I turned to Amelia. “Was that the right choice?” I asked. “How would I know?” she said with a laugh. “You’re the driver!” “I chose the sky,” I realized. “I didn’t have to choose whether to hide in a cave or climb a mountain. Instead of hiding or climbing, I chose to fly. I will forge my own path from now on.” “I’m so proud of you!” Amelia grinned, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Thank you,” I smiled. She gave me a wink and then everything began to fade. I woke up in my bed, feeling confident. Now I knew where I was headed.
1 Comment
Paula Strong
7/24/2022 02:51:07 pm
Great story Sara! Thanks for sharing!
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