#itsunclearstories

[itsunclearstories]

Train Ride

Train Ride:

It was a beautiful spring morning and based on the lighting in the room I approximated that it was around 5:30am. I awoke to birds chirping in the backyard and I could smell the freshness of the dew over the pristine grass outside. Fresh tea was brewing. It smelled like Earl Grey, my favorite. I can remember the smell of the orange fragrance, which is the oil added to Earl Grey to give it the unique taste and smell it has. Ms. Thomas was brewing tea for breakfast since that was the British tradition of tea in the morning and she knew it was my favorite type of tea. The linens were nice and soft, and I can remember my feet against the soft plushy sheets and how relaxed and calm it made me feel. Unfortunately, I knew it was time to arise and face the day. I had a very important meeting that morning, that could possibly change my life. I knew I had to get my day started.

The floor in the bathroom was cool to the touch. My feet felt great against the marble tiles, and I remember the bottoms of my feet against the grout between the tiles. I remember thinking that I needed to remain as nice and calm as I was now during the very important interview, I had coming up shortly. I remember looking at the outfit I had picked out. My tie was a brightly colored blue with silver dots. I had a nice crisp white shirt that was pressed and starched by Ms. Thomas. I remember the creases on the shirt and thought to myself, what an impressive ironing job she had done. Once clothed and ready, I made my way downstairs with the continued smell of Earl Grey in my nose but this time with an addition of fresh eggs and bacon. Ms. Thomas always did a great job with her breakfast spread. As I entered the dining room the table spread was the usual. Hot Earl Grey tea, fresh biscuits, fried eggs over hard and bacon. The condiments lined the table, grape jelly, strawberry preserves, butter and all the fixings one can imagine.

Breakfast was great, and it was now time to make the journey to my interview. The weather was beautiful and the walk to the train station was brisk and cool. You could see some people in light jackets due to the coolness of the morning. The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful morning indeed. I walked past the butcher’s shop and was wondering what I would grab from there to celebrate on my way back home. The meats were hanging in the window and you could see the nice pieces of aged steak, all different sizes and cuts. Steak, that’s what we will be having tonight.

The walk up the stairs to the train was swift and quick. Once at the top of the stairs, I looked around and saw the various passengers waiting for the train. There was an old lady clutching her purse, a young man with his book bag on the way to school. There was a businessman with his briefcase and jacket as well as a fine tailored suite with the lapel showing. I wondered what kind of work he did. Was he a doctor, politician, businessman, etc. Suddenly, there she was!She was wearing a long white dress and you could see from the slit on the side of the dress that she was wearing red boots. She was wearing the kind of dress you would see at a debutant ball. Her shoes were bright red and they appeared to be leather boots. She appeared in my peripheral view and what caught my eye was her hair. Her long amazing blonde hair. Her hair was actually bright and yellow and looked like it was glowing. It reminded me of the book I read as a child of Goldilocks and the three bears. I remember thinking to myself, that must be goldilocks. I wanted to get a glimpse of her face, but she was further down the platform. I followed behind wanting to see who this beautiful hair lady was. You could hear the train approaching, as the passengers stepped aside to make way for the approaching train. I lost sight of her when the train doors opened. I made it onto the packed train and found a seat.

The ride was approximately thirty minutes. In my haste to get in the train and find a seat, I completely forgot about the woman with the yellow hair. At the halfway point, I was busily reading and preparing for my interview, when the bell dinged for the next stop. The bell usually dinged as a warning that your stop was less than a minute away. Suddenly I felt funny right at that moment of the ding. The tingling sensation you feel when something isn’t right. The hairs in the back of my neck began to stand. I felt a coldness that didn’t fit into the setting. I had that gut feeling of dread come over me. I remember thinking to myself, what is this, why am I feeling this way? My palms were sweating and the sweat beads on my head began to form. I thought to myself what is going on. I looked up and there she was. Staring right at me, the most beautiful being I had ever seen. There was not a blemish on her face. She had the most brilliant illuminating blue eyes looking straight at me, straight through me. Her face was pale, the pale you see in death before any cosmetics have been used. Despite the extreme paleness, it didn’t take away from the extreme beauty I was beholding. She had rosy cheeks, with a nose that was tiny and pointed straight up. The nose you would find on the most conceited of aristocrats. Her eyebrows were yellow to match her hair and she had the most gorgeous eyelashes that fit perfectly onto her pale face. When our eyes met, she smiled. I could not believe or comprehend the beauty I was looking at. I smiled back but couldn’t break the sensation that continued to grow in my mind. As she continued to stare at me, I felt myself getting disoriented and I wasn’t sure if that was based on her shear beauty or something else.  As I stared back at her, the beauty was so intense that right before my very eyes, she began to change.  Her appearance and face were so perfect that I began to see what lay behind her face.

Suddenly, there was an intense pain in my stomach, the unbearable pain you feel when your intestines are being twisted inside your stomach. As I began to sweat, like someone just coming out of the shower, I noticed more eyes on me. I remember the gentleman with the briefcase asking me if I was alright, but throughout this experience I couldn’t break the gaze of her stare. In this moment of unimaginable pain, I watched her transformation. The paleness became even paler to the point of white. The white you see on freshly cleaned set of teeth. The intense beauty began to change to extreme defectiveness. The closer I looked the more alarmed I became. Behind her face was sorrow, dread, plagues, death and hell itself and the evil contained in it.

The pain was so bad at this point I was slumped over in my seat with an expression of pure horror on my face. The beautiful blue eyes now appeared to be the most dreadful blue one could only find on the path to perdition. "Ding" the train bells chimed. In shock, and in an immense amount of pain and trembling, I used every ounce of strength I had left to lift up my hand and point to the most dreadful site I had ever seen. As the passengers moved their gaze from me to see what I was so fixed on and terrified of, the door had opened and I could only see the blond yellow hair stepping of the train and the train doors closing. The passengers looked back at me with a perplexed look on their faces. Just the way it began, it was over. No one seemed to have noticed the woman or the hair, or even see her exit the train. That was the last day I took the train.