The Unseen Character
A fine rain confronted Robert’s dry face as he stepped off the train. A crisp chill slithered through his coat collar and chilled him down to his toes. To make it worse, his foot was submerged in a puddle that actually was deeper than it seemed. To this soaking of his boots and socks with mud, he did not react. The noise around him was merely a buzz or lull compared to the sounds in his own head. He stood there, unusually still. His feet seemed rooted in the wet cement. His eyes seemed glazed over as he tried to avoid and to remain unnoticed by the excitement that brushed past him.
Robert ignored those people who had places to go and other people to see, while he had none. He had nowhere to be on his last day of leave. He fiddled with his traveling case that was soaked through from the increasing drizzle. A woman with a grey hat pushed past him without even stopping to apologize. I wonder what it’s like to have a place to go…To be needed by another?
Once the platform had cleared of those in a rush, the engine behind him slowly steamed away and the conductor watched this stranger with his travel case and a big burly overcoat with a little curiosity. Robert walked along the platform into the sheltered roof and sat himself down. There was nothing to watch for nor anything to hear except for the continuous drip from the rain gutter onto the rusted railroad tracks. He sat with his fingers intertwined and his head gradually drooped forward.
How much time passed before he met another living soul is unclear. Perhaps it was as darkness began to reside around the station, for it was March and spring was a week away, but it was such a shade of grey that Robert could only hear a single sound. It was the sound of a coat rustling in the chilled air or maybe it was the shuffle of the boots on the wet platform, but whatever it was, Robert soon realized that he was staring at the top of a pair of boots.
They were particularly ugly boots: scuffed, black and covered in splotches of mud. Robert could tell that these boots had been mended more than once because the edges on the patches were frazzled and worn. He drew his eyes up to what appeared to be the folds of a plaid skirt. They too were quite worn, very close to ripping at the seams. The colours were quite bland and particularly faded. The pink was extremely bland, to the point that only the faintest tinge of coral colouring was left. The black and brown lines were solid and possibly stained by various substances. Robert continued upward to notice the small red coat on this figure. The front had several buttons missing due to the ball of fluff being cradled by the stranger. There were several green patches sewn roughly, most likely by a child’s hand, around the sleeves that presented the ball of white fur to Robert. It took a moment for him to realize that the patch of pale fur was quite alive and shivering in the arms of this individual. It shuffled slowly, quivering in the cold, for only its fur provided limited protection. Its red eyes met Robert’s and he lost his breath and shrunk away. The creature to him was like venomous snake that was preparing to spring, to dig its fangs into Robert’s skin and let its poison seep into his veins. Robert immediately recoiled and shifted as far away from the ball of fur that twitched its nose constantly.
The owner of the rabbit faced the frightened man with big hazel eyes. Her face seemed puzzled by his sudden reaction and she became slightly annoyed. She raised an eyebrow at the man who cowered from her pet bunny. Her pale face, flushed by only a slightly rosy colour in her cheeks from the cold, continually shifted from a thin lined mouth to an aggravated frown. Her movements were slow but subtle, with a hint of exasperation. She shrugged her shoulders and took a seat at the other end of the bench which was occupied by Robert. She began to stroke the ball of fluff with a shaky hand that was reddened by the continual breeze that had picked up since the sun’s disappearance. She tried to ignore the man who was afraid of her bunny, but his constant, hyperactive breathing annoyed her immensely.
