Just Knowing II

The train came from nowhere, not out of the sky, but along a track and hadn’t been there before. It appeared under the train’s wheels and disappeared behind it. No one seemed to notice it except Kristy and her sister who watched it come and knew what it was. It wasn’t one of those new trains, slick cold and shiny. It was an old fashioned steam engine, though on looking closely Kristy couldn’t see an engineer or a tender car. That didn’t seem like a surprise however, she hadn’t expected the grim reaper, though she couldn’t have said what it was that she did expect.

Kristy’s sister knew that she was seeing something that she shouldn’t be, but that only added to her curiosity. Kristy turned and nodded to her and she knew that this was it. Kristy took a deep breath and stepped onto the train as it stopped in front of them. At that moment she took on the feeling of being something different. She was still Kristy but at the same time she wasn’t. There was going to be a body, somewhere, Kristy’s sister knew. There would be a funeral and crying, and stories, but at this moment it wasn’t sad, it was just Kristy moving on and the world was fine with this.

Kristy’s sister peered inside the car that her sister had entered while Kristy searched for a seat. Just like every other moment of this who strange event she knew that the other passenger were refugees from world war two. She couldn’t help but wonder how long they would ride before finally coming to rest but then she had to admit that spending forever in one place wouldn’t be any more entertaining. Kristy had always wanted to travel and now she would.

As the train built up speed Kristy’s sister could see the flashes of passengers, living their lives if that was how it could be phrased, inside. Then the train was gone and she was left there standing alone. She knew that she could have grabbed on to the back of it, or she could have stepped on when Kristy got on, it would have been so simple. For a second she felt regret but somehow she also knew that she didn’t belong on the train, at least not yet and maybe not ever. She shrugged to herself and then walked away to face the rest of her life, while the train sped on into the unknown.