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By Kate Everson
Copyright 2012 Kate Everson
The train was pulling into the station. The mighty iron horse whistled as it arrived, and the passengers grabbed their luggage and hurried onto the platform.
One man stood apart from the rest. He had a red bulbous nose, baggy pants and a funny straw hat with a fake yellow flower.
“He looks like a clown,” thought Rebecca.
She couldn’t stop staring. She knew it wasn’t polite. A little boy ran by, pulling at his mother’s arm, and laughed at the man.
The man didn’t seem to notice. He waited patiently for all the people to get on the train, then picked up his old brown suitcase and climbed up the metal steps. He was right behind Rebecca.
In fact, he sat down right beside her.
“Oh, hello!” she smiled, trying to be pleasant.
He said nothing.
The man looked down at his shoes. They were worn and had holes in them. Dirt was caked on the sides, and the shoelaces did not match.
Rebecca looked out the window.
She didn’t want to get into a conversation with this strange man, who obviously was a bit odd. Maybe he was an evil clown! She smirked at the thought. Too many horror movies.
The train picked up speed and the landscape whizzed by. Another train went by on a different track. It was a freight train.
The sound of the train drowned out everything else. The inside of her car was darker now and she thought she felt something on her leg.
She looked down and saw the man’s hand now resting by his side. Had he touched her? She gasped. This was an evil clown after all!
She glared at the man.
“Excuse me!” she said, but he didn’t answer.
More loudly, she said it again. “Excuse me!!!”
The man stared ahead.
Then she saw something strange crawl out of his hat. It looked like a mouse! The little grey creature twitched its whiskers at her, then disappeared under the fake flower.
Rebecca blinked. Did she really see that?
She stared at the hat, waiting for the mouse to appear again. But just then the conductor came by asking for tickets.
“Tickets, please!” he shouted down the long car. “Have your tickets ready, please!”
Rebecca fumbled in her purse and got out the ticket for Ottawa. It was going to be a three hour train ride, and she hoped this clown was getting off soon.
She sat rigid in her seat and waited for the conductor to come by. She looked straight ahead and tried not to look at the man. He gave her the creeps.
When the conductor got there, the man had no ticket.
“Ticket, please,” the conductor said.
But the clown did not move. He looked sadly up at the conductor. He shook his head.
“You don’t have a ticket, sir?” the conductor asked.
The clown just looked down at his shoes.
“Sorry, sir,” the conductor said. “You’ll have to get off at the next station. Kingston.”
Rebecca handed the conductor her ticket and felt relieved. At least the clown was getting off next. But she also felt a little sorry for him. Whatever was wrong with this man’s mind, he was still a human being. Maybe he had no money.
She looked up at him and studied his face. It was old and gray, with bushy eyebrows and many deep wrinkles in his skin. He had been through a lot, she could tell. But what was up with the clown costume? And was that really a mouse?
She decided to try again to make conversation.
“Sir?” she said politely. “Can I help you at all?”
Finally, the man looked at her. His eyes were wide and deep. Inside them was a whole lifetime of pain, but also a glimmer of hope.
He reached over and squeezed her leg.
Rebecca jumped.
But the grin on his face told her he was not being lewd, just making a friendly gesture the only way he knew how. She smiled back and gently took his hand off her leg.
“I am an old man,” he said slowly. “So old you cannot imagine where I have been and what I have done.”
And he hung his head lower, and peered at her from underneath his bushy eyebrows. They seemed to look right through her.
“I have been to Spain,” he said. Rebecca murmured how nice that must have been. Then he added, “During the Inquisition.”
“Oh!” she said. “Wasn’t that a few centuries ago?”
But the old man stopped there. He leaned back in his seat, and stretched out his legs. His floppy shoes dangled off his feet. The mouse jumped out of the hat and crawled down to sit on his lap. He stroked its tiny ears.
“Yes,” he answered, finally. “Yes, it was… ”
And he closed his eyes, remembering. The hat fell down over his face and the perky fake flower bobbed up and down with the movement of the train.
Suddenly, he woke up with a start.
“Ah yes!” he said. “I have to get off next, don’t I?”
Rebecca asked him where he was going.
“Kingston,” he smiled. And the little mouse leaped up on his cheeks and gave him a kiss. “Kingston is the land of my dreams. It is there I will meet her. Again.”
Rebecca was very curious by now. This strange man had quite a story to tell. He may be crazy, but he was also fascinating. She almost wished he wasn’t getting off so soon.
“Who is there?” she asked.
“What?” he shouted. “Where?”
And the clown lifted up his hat, and gave it a shake. Out of it poured money, all kinds of coins and paper money from lands all over the world. She didn’t think any of it was Canadian dollars.
The little mouse scurried about picking up the coins and putting them in the clown’s shirt pocket. It grabbed the bills and stored them in his hatband. Now he had money sticking out all over him.
Rebecca was astonished. She just stared.
Then the conductor came along, calling out the next station. “Kingston,” he shouted. “Kingston, next stop.”
The clown sat up straight and adjusted his hat, stuffing the money in tightly. Then he picked up his old brown suitcase and got in line for the exit. The little mouse peeked precariously from the top of the flower.
“Wait!” Rebecca said, before she knew what she was doing. “Wait for me!”
She leaped up and stood behind the clown. When the train rolled to a stop, she got out right after him, clutching her suitcase.
The man stared at her for a minute, then grinned.
“I knew you would come, Rebecca,” he said. “Follow me.”
She walked three steps behind him, as he weaved through the passengers at the Kingston station and out into the parking lot. There was a black buggy with an old brown horse tied up to the post. He climbed in and beckoned Rebecca to follow.
She did not know what else to do. This was all so bizarre. So she climbed up beside him, and he gave the reins a shake.
“Giddyup, Nellie,” he cackled.
And off they went, down the streets. After juggling around cars and traffic, they finally came to a country road where the buggy slowed down and came to a halt. The clown got out, took off his hat and bowed to Rebecca.
“Welcome to my world,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
The little mouse jumped off and scurried into the grass, finding a hole just his size.
Rebecca got out of the buggy and looked around. She was a bit frightened and did not know what to expect. Here was this old man and she was with him! Who would have expected this on a train ride?
“Allow me to introduce myself,” the man smiled.
He dusted off his worn jacket and stood up perfectly straight. Even in his ridiculous outfit, he looked somehow regal. And that gleam in his eye was like a crystal
, catching the light.
Rebecca waited. She looked him up and down and decided that, no matter what, she was in for an unexpected adventure. She smiled inside. Her life had been pretty dull up ‘til now. School, part-time job, boring, boring, boring. She just wanted something exciting. Maybe this was it.
“My name is Simon,” he smiled. His yellow teeth gleamed in the sun.
Suddenly, Rebecca wanted to run. There was something about this man she did not trust. Who was he and what did he want from her? She was very confused.
Simon grabbed her by the arm, just as she was about to walk away.
“Rebecca,” he hissed in her ear. “Trust me.”
She could not get away, and he led her to the river bank where he pulled her down into the soft grass. She was shaken and upset. But no matter what she felt about him, there was something that intrigued her and she wanted to find out more. What was in those eyes?
“I am your husband,” he said, spitting as he spoke.
Now Rebecca had enough. She leaped up and started running, but she tripped and fell on a rock. He caught up to her and lay beside her, his face inches from hers.
“Kiss me,” he drooled.
She choked. “Get away, you creep!” she yelled.
Suddenly, the mouse showed up, leaping out of its hole. It hopped over and sat on the end of Rebecca’s nose.
“Rebecca,” the mouse squeaked. “If you want to get away, twitch your nose.”
She wiggled her nose.
Instantly, the terrain changed. She was no longer on the grass with the creepy clown but in a nice, quiet nest in the tree with the mouse. The clown was nowhere in sight. Even the buggy and horse had disappeared. This was a whole other world.
“What are you?” she shrieked, having had enough of all this drama.
“Ferdinand is my name,” it squeaked. “And that’s no bull!”
The mouse roared with laughter. He laughed so hard he fell right out of the tree. He raced back up again and sat beside Rebecca.
“Rebecca, are you my friend?” he asked, quite seriously.
“I… I don’t know,” Rebecca said. “I don’t even know you!”
“Yes, you do!” he laughed and almost fell out of the tree again. “I am YOU!”
Ferdinand went into a hole in the tree and came out dressed in a long royal red robe, with a golden crown on his head. “I am you,” he said, “in your dearest dreams. You have always wanted to be someone special, haven’t you? Someone who could fulfill herself and claim her royal destiny?”
Rebecca looked down at herself and discovered that now she was cloaked in purple robes. Her jewels sparkled in the sunlight. Sequins of gold gleamed in every stitch. Ruffles of purest handmade lace adorned her. And on her feet were the most marvellous golden boots.
She gasped. All her life she had wondered who she really was, and dreamed that some day she would discover that she was more than just a plain, ordinary girl. And here it was. The destiny she had dreamed of.
As she discovered herself, the mouse smiled.
“Ah, Rebecca,” he giggled. “You are a charmer, you are a real charmer!”
His tiny teeth sparkled like diamonds.
He took her by the hand and led her down the tree onto the soft ground. Little rabbits came out of the woods and sat there and watched. A deer, grazing nearby, lifted up its head and bowed to her. A bear, nibbling at blackberries, gave her a long, respectful look and tilted back its head in a roar. The whole natural world offered her obeisance.
“I am Queen of all I survey,” she said. “This is my kingdom. I am the world and the world is in me. Every living creature is my own.”
She bowed to all the animals, and smiled to them.
“I love you all,” she said.
There were tears in her eyes and in the mouse’s eyes and there were no dry eyes in all her magical kingdom.
But then she had to wake up.
Darn!
The train was jerking along its track and suddenly screeched to a stop. The clown man had gotten off at Kingston and this was the next station, Brockville. She still had an hour to go to get to Ottawa.
Rebecca stretched and looked around. The conductor was smiling at her.
“Had a wee nap, did you?” he joked. “Glad you are still with us. That clown was a bit weird, wasn’t he?”
Rebecca relaxed. So it had all been just a dream.
But when she looked beside her on the seat, there was a little paper flower stuck to the fabric. She picked it up and recognized it as the one on the clown’s hat.
She held it tightly and closed her eyes. She wished she could go back to the kingdom for real.
Finally, the train arrived in Ottawa, and the first thing Rebecca did was head for Britannia Bay on the river. She walked along the shore and felt good all over. She smiled at the sun gleaming in the perfect sky.
Rebecca loved to see the ice crystals forming along the water. She picked them up in her hand, and whispered, “The kingdom is mine and it’s right here.”
Rebecca was a queen in the world, and every crystal in her hand was part of her very real magical kingdom. They gleamed in the sunlight, and resonated with her whole being. She held on very tightly. She would not ever let go.
“I am the world and the world is in me,” she smiled.
Rebecca felt alive inside herself. She was not just an ordinary girl. Inside her were all the mysteries and glories of the universe. She needed to know that. She was glad to be alive and awake in the real, very amazing world.
The End
Read more train stories at: The Train, The Train Part 2, The Train Part 3 and The Train Part 4.