The Station Girl

Chapter 6

It was the day he took me to see the old trains that I started talking to Sir. That day, the sun shined bright in the sky. He'd told me the day before that he could take me to see them if we left early enough in the day. During the night, I hardly slept at all, too excited to see them and too worried that he would leave me behind at the same time.

The moment I heard the birds chirping, I jumped up off of the blankets. The one I slept covered up with was the one I took from them, and the ones I laid with had come from the old man. They made the wooden floor easier to sleep on.

Both the dresses I had with me were exactly the same. Dull brown, and too big on me. It looked more like I was wearing a sack than a dress sometimes. Still, I switched between the two every day so the other one could have a day to air out. Of course, every night when I slipped out of the dress, I would need to pull splinters out of it if I didn't want to spend the night sleeping with them.

I slipped the other dress on, and crept out of my shed that morning. It didn't take me long to realize that he woke up early each day. At least, he was up long before I was. Often times, the sun would be half way to its peak in the sky before I left my shed. And there he would be, in that building, looking out the window for me. When he saw me, he would smile and wave at me while telling me good morning. I would wave back, and offer a cautious, small smile, but that was it.

This time, when I walked onto the platform, he wasn't at the window to greet me. I was puzzled, but I couldn't look through the window to see him. So, I walked up to the door of the building, acting much braver than I felt.

And I knocked.

I didn't stay close to the door any longer than I had to, and backed up a couple steps. There was some rustling in the building, and then he opened it. He looked the same as usual in his dark blue outfit. His hair may have been a bit more haphazard or his eyes a bit more closed than usual, but I didn't notice.

The moment he saw me; he knew what I was there for. He smiled and left the door wide open for me when he went back inside. It was an invitation to come inside. An invitation that I ignored, and instead stood fidgeting at the entrance. He came back out holding two bags.

"I think we'll be there a while. One's for me, and the other is for you. Don't eat it all though! It has your breakfast and lunch inside."

Hesitantly, I took the one he'd offered out to me and peered inside. Bread, a wedge of cheese, an apple, and a closed cup with water inside. There was probably more inside, but I didn't bother to shuffle stuff around to see.

He started walking, and I followed behind him. I practically skipped with each step I took, but not once did it slip from my mind to keep a distance away from him. With each passing day, I trusted him a little more despite my initial apprehension of him.

It saddens me now, but I never did fully trust Sir. I never trusted him with my feelings, and almost never did I tell him what was on my mind. The only feelings he ever saw were the ones I wanted him to see. Feelings that were happy. Joyful. Excited. When I felt those, I would let them show. Sorrow. Fear. Anxiety. Those, I lied about, and each time I lied, I felt a little more certain that he knew what I was doing. He wouldn't say anything, but we both knew that the other knew.

That day, I didn't say a single word on the way to the trains. He did all the talking, telling me about which street we were on, what building that was, or who lived in that building. That was where he got our food, this was where people gave him free food from time to time.

That first trip out into the town, I hardly heard a word of what he said. I was just too excited to listen to much. My attention on him was only enough for me to follow him. The rest was thinking about trains, and how I would get even closer to one. I would even be able to touch one this time!

It was about an hour that we walked, yet I didn't bother to take anything from my food bag that whole time. I didn't want to stop and eat and then have to wait even longer to see the trains. The ones that came to the station just weren't enough. They were different each day, but not being able to touch them and look inside them disappointed me a little more every time they left the station.

So when I saw the first train on the edge of town, I zipped off to see it. I didn't wait to see what he would say. I think he called after me to wait, but the way he said it wasn't harsh. He said it with laughter. It was with great reluctance that I stayed at the edge of the grass. There, I waited for him, bouncing in place as I stared at the trains.

The one that first caught my attention was very old. A lot of its paint had rusted off, and what little remained was a faded out green color. There were no carts to it, just the engine and cab. A little distance off was a tender that had lost all of its paint to rust through the years.

I heard him come up behind me, and I faced him. He could see the yearning in my eyes, and gave me the go ahead. Before I ran over to the train, I beamed up at him. My food bag laid forgotten in the grass.

I don't know how long I explored that train before he called me over to eat. At least an hour passed, possibly more. I hardly even tasted the cheese and bread as I ate. The apple, I ate a bit slower, but even that was gone too soon. I'd gotten up and walked away a few steps when I paused and looked behind me.

"Sir?" I asked, my hands playing with the edge of my dress. He'd looked at me with surprise at first, and then such a big smile covered his face, I wondered if it hurt him at all.

"What is it, Little One?"

"What kind of train is this?" I knew that all the trains were much more different than their outward colors. I knew this because the shape of the letters beneath the trains in my book were all different. But I couldn't figure out what those letters spelt out. For that matter, I didn't even know which letter was which at the time. All I knew was that there were different shapes put together beneath each picture. If I wanted to learn, I needed to ask Sir.

"Here, let me show you." He got up, and walked over to the train with me, talking the whole time.

In the beginning, it was the trains that caused me to talk. But in the end, it was the trains that caused Sir to stop talking.

*****

A/N: I must have been thinking about stories in the back of my head for my first class today because, wouldn't you know it, something called "The Life of Hydrogen" popped into my head while the teacher was lecturing. This particular teacher like to personify everything, and when he started talking about Hydrogen, I started thinking about a girl named Hydrogen who's one of millions of other Hydrogens that almost all look alike. To make this even weirder, I felt bad for her because she was trapped in this space full of other Hydrogens with only one way out. And now, I'm debating on if I want to take a gander at making like a 2000-3000 word short story about this idea -.-

But yeah, Little One is talking now! Hurrah! Alas, she doesn't actually talk much to begin with in chapters, but you'll get to find out why that is near the end of the story :P