“It was cold and still. A full moon adorned the sky. In the dim moonlight- something glittered, light filtered, shimmered.
Out came the train, out of nowhere, for reasons no one knows.
It was beautiful. It had a glistening surface, every bogie a different color, some fluorescent, some purple, some simple, some exquisite, some shabby, some black.
It moved at an astonishing speed.
The man woke up. His hands were still grasping the handle. He stared out the window. It was dark inside. Flashes of light invaded his bogie after every few seconds. He was tired. He could not see the end of the bogie it was too dark. Yet, he could hear voices. People complaining-They said that there was no space to stand, he could hear them push and fight. Yet, he had this huge place to himself. It was always dark. He looked longingly outside again. He wanted to get off the train. The journey was too long.
Suddenly she appeared. Had she lost her way? His mind questioned.
He looked at her and she smiled. He leapt forward took her hand in his.
***
The afternoon was warm and sunny. She looked so beautiful. she made her way past the hall came and sat next to him. She noted that he had ordered her favorite wine. She flashed him an uncomfortable smile.
Twisting her gorgeous hands, almost perfect, so pink and pretty, she sat looking away from him.
He asked her what was wrong. She said she didn’t feel for him anymore. She’s…outgrown him.
The man head began to spin. He said nothing. Something familiar within him reached out and closed him up. He became a stranger to her in nanoseconds. She stared, stunned by the sudden disconnect.
The rhythm was faintly playing in his head.
He was back on the train.
He lay in a corner, watching the flashes of light in the dark.
He found peace in the darkness. And as he willed it be darker, it magically, became darker.
People would lose their way and stumble into his space. He would make conversation and they left when they had to. His mind never retraced the past. He loved the way this train moved fast, so fast, everything was a blur.
***
Snatches of conversation flew to him again. He learnt that there were different people on the train. People who had less and people who had more. People who didn’t care and people who wanted to share. People who’d never dare to let anyone in, people who didn’t know where the journey begins.
***
One day he heard someone crying. It was a pained cry, he heard it the whole night. By morning, it had become a whimper. The man decided he wanted to know who was crying. He made his way out. He was afraid someone would take his home, his bogie away if he left it. But now that he knew its every nook, he decided he’d prove it was his if someone mistook.
He walked into the darkness of something new, and found it was filled with light. He asked how the light came on, they said you had to want it bad enough.
He found the person who was crying. She was stunned to see him. She wanted to know why he came. He said he had come because her crying irritated him and she should shut up.
She burst out laughing and suddenly held him tight.
He asked her to let go and she refused. He felt very confused.
***
The train suddenly split into two.
Smoke and shimmer separated the flying train as it split.
The man found himself lying on the floor; he looked around for the strange girl who had hugged him. She was nowhere to be seen.
He missed her.
He saw that she was staring at him from the window in the train running parallel to his.
He ran towards the window and reached out. She reached out too. They were suddenly holding hands.
He looked up. He saw the most beautiful sunset. He saw the flowers lying alongside. They were pretty. He was certain she’d like them. He asked the driver to hurry. The driver said it was a car not a plane. The man smirked in response, thoughts elsewhere.
***
The man’s bogie was full of air and light as he stared from his bogie out at the girl on the train running alongside. He shouted out what she wanted to hear. Her face was bright with warmth.”
***
The girl was smiling as she finished her story.
Fingers traced the sky as they sat hand in hand staring at the big bright moon.
The girl said “the train is our lives. We’re all on it. People we don’t expect to meet. Time is passing us by. Don’t shut yourself in, look out.”
“But why did the train split?” The man asked.
The girl said: “to show you. That we’re different. We’ll always be. We can’t be one. But we can always be together…”
-Push
