The Station Girl

Chapter 5

My first train was truly the first amazing experience I'd ever had in those first five years. I waited hours before it pulled into the station. The whole time, my train book kept me company. I flipped back and forth between each and every page. Would it look this one or that one? How many carts would it pull behind it? Would they carry people or objects?

Even filled with excitement of seeing the train, I noticed how the old man was worried about me. Every so often, he would creak open that creaky door and look out at me. At first, I glanced back in acknowledgement. And then, as time passed on, I stopped looking back up at him. I wasn't trying to be rude. Rather, I was caught up in the moment of getting to actually see my first train during the day.

It was hotter than I would have liked, and my dress stuck to my skin. It didn't both me nearly as much as it should have though. If that was all I had to suffer through to see the train, then I still would have gladly suffered through it even if it'd been ten times worse.

Later, as the sun began to dip down, and the shadows began to stretch, the old man came out to check on me again. Only this time, he came over to me, carrying a plate and glass. The glass still contained milk, but this time, the plate held a variety of cooked vegetables. Potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and corn. Beside them was a small slice of ham.

I didn't take the plate, but I didn't move away from him this time. My mouth practically drooled as he placed it down. Never before had they offered us so many things to eat at once. Bread and potatoes had been our diet with the occasional slice of cheese or ham. It was my first time seeing, let alone eating, most of the proffered food.

"I thought you'd like food that was a bit less plain than bread and cheese." I kept an eye on him the whole time I ate those delicacies. I was afraid he would change his mind and take them away from me. In my hurry, it only took me a few minutes to gulp everything down. Before he went back inside, he told me to be careful out there by myself. People would be coming soon for the train.

I remember my eyes widening in wonder. If I was having trouble staying on my bench earlier, it was nothing compared to the excitement of the train coming. He hadn't commented on my book, but I'm sure he saw it. It was probably the reason why he told me to be careful.

Sure enough, the people started to wander in. My book went back in my bag, and my bag went back on my lap. I didn't want anyone to take them away from me. At the same time, I wanted to watch what everyone was doing. It was, after all, the first sign of activity I'd seen all day ever since Lucy and her papa had left.

My body wouldn't stop trembling, and the smile on my face wouldn't go away. I was constantly looking left and right, toward the building and toward the tracks. Despite all the activity going on around me, I didn't want to miss seeing the train.

Most of the people stopped at that open window that Lucy and I had stood at that very morning. The difference being that the old man didn't leave the building for them like he'd done for us. The people would say something, and then slip some paper in the window at him. He would take it away from them, and a minute later return a piece of paper out the window. The paper he returned was a different color. White, not green.

I didn't know at the time that they were paying him for their tickets. It was the first time I'd ever seen money, let alone had any sort of concept about it.

And then, the people started to gather around me. A few sat on a bench farther away from me, but not many. It was understandable that they wouldn't want to sit. The benches were extraordinarily uncomfortable. I still don't know how I managed to sit on that bench all day long that first day.

A lot of those people hardly even glanced at me. And the more that gathered around, the less I looked around. Staring wasn't polite, they had taught us. It was another thing we could have gone to the bad room for if we didn't learn our lesson after the first few punishments.

But I was used to being ignored. Most of them had done it in the first place, only paying attention to us when they had to. Except for the few that bonded with us kids, or when we asked them a direct question, we didn't matter. If we looked clean and presentable, along with being polite, then they were satisfied.

The whistle blew. I sucked in a breath. I clutched my bag ever tighter. The train was coming. The train was coming.

The platform began to shake, and a few of the people took a few steps back. The ones who'd been sitting stood up. Without getting off my bench, which I very much did not want to yet, I couldn't see very far past the station. So when the train finally passed that barrier, it was all I could do to not squeal out with glee.

It rolled to a stop, large and imposing. A whoosh of steam sounded from it. Black and red, just like one of the very first trains in my little book. Not just like, but exactly like it. The part that pulled everything shined in the fading light. The part that the person who drove it was open aired. A big cart behind it, piled high with charcoal rocks. Those were all black. The carts it pulled were wooden, a dull red.

The engine. The conductor. A cab. The tender filled with coal. I knew none of those terms. In the years to come, Sir would patiently teach me them. He would teach me a lot. Not just about trains, but life in general. How to read. How to write. Math. Cooking. Anything I had questions about, he tried to answer to the best of his abilities.

Doors opened on the carts, and people stepped out of them one by one. The people who stood on the platform waited to the side. When the area had cleared of arriving people, the ones who were departing piled up into the train.

I mustered up the courage to jump off my bench. I didn't move from it though. Not yet, anyway. I stood there, looking up at the train. How big it was compared to me. Had the one I'd seen during the night been this big too?

A cautious step forward, and a furtive glance back. He wasn't watching me, and I wanted to touch the train so bad. The departing people hadn't milled around for long either. There were several who curiously looked my way as they boarded the train again, but they made no attempt at stopping me.

A couple more steps forward, and I was within touching distance of it. Carefully, ever so slowly, I reached out toward it. I was right on the edge of the platform. I wasn't as close as I'd thought I was. Just a bit further and I would have been able to reach it...

"Little One!"

The sound startled me back just as the whistle blew. I turned around, and he was walking toward me, his legs swallowing up the distance in long strides. I looked at the ground, gripping my bag. Or at least, I'd wanted to. I had left it on the bench. Unsure of what to do, I'd fisted my hands.

"Don't touch the ones on the track. They could hurt you." I nodded my head, staring at my feet.

"Once you've settled in though, we can go to see some of the old ones on the edge of town, alright?"

When I looked back up at him, he was smiling. A smile that I couldn't help but sheepishly return. I still didn't feel safe talking to him, or being around him for that matter. But at that moment, I had a feeling.

Maybe he wasn't like them after all.

*****

A/N: Fun fact: When I started this novella (Bonus fun fact: The September JustWriteIt inspired the idea for this story), I didn't intend to reuse things from the prologue. And once I realized I'd done it, it just sort of became an idea that I liked to incorporate parts of the prologue into the story. So I guess those are sort of like little Easter eggs? Yes? Sorta? Kinda? Maybe? Okay, maybe not, but be on the look out for them because they pop up a few more times as the story goes on ^.^