Isobel and Emile. Alan Reed
are standing on a street.
It is the main street of a town. There are shops along it. They are not open yet. It is too early in the morning. There is still a chill in the air.
They are going to the train station. They walk down the street and then they turn onto another street. There are no shops on this street. There are row houses built along it. They walk down this street and then they walk out of the town.
Outside the town there are fields. There are fences around the fields. There is nothing left in them. They have been harvested. They are bare now. The light is brighter here. There are no buildings to shade them from it. The light feels like it is pressing down on them.
The train station is here. It is in a field.
The train station looks like a barn. It might have been a barn once but it is not a barn now. Now it is the train station. There is a sign over the door that says that it is the train station.
The train station is painted white. The letters on the sign are painted green.
They walk down the road that leads to the train station. It is getting warmer. They are starting to sweat. They walk and then they are standing in front of the train station.
There is a door that goes into the train station. There is a woman there. She is in a booth. She sells tickets to the people who come into the train station. There are no people in the station to sell tickets to. She is knitting a sweater instead.
They go inside the station.
They go to where the woman is knitting a sweater. He puts his suitcase down. He reaches into his pocket. He takes a piece of paper out. It is a ticket for the train. He shows it to the woman. He asks where he should go to catch the train that is written on the ticket.
The woman there tells him to go to the first platform. She points with her finger. She is sitting on a chair behind a pane of glass. She is very fat.
He picks the suitcase up. They walk to where the woman pointed. There is a door there. It is propped open. On the other side of the door there are the platforms the trains stop at.
There are two platforms. One is for the trains going one way and the other is for the trains going the other way. They go to one of the platforms.
There is a bench on the platform. There is also a bench on the other platform. There is no one sitting on either of the benches. There is no one else here.
It is still early in the morning.
They sit on the bench. They sit so that they are beside each other. They do not say anything. They look at each other and then they look at the bench on the other platform.
There should be something to say. They want there to be something to say.
They cannot think of anything to say.
It scares them.
One of them says: ‘I am hungry.’ It is not much of something to say. It is stupid. But it is something.
The other one says: ‘We should get something to eat.’
They stand up. They go inside the station. There is a snack machine there.
When they go inside the station the woman stops knitting. She watches them.
She watches them as they go over to the snack machine. They stand in front of the snack machine. The snack machine makes a humming sound. There is an electrical motor inside it.
They put coins into the snack machine. Gears inside the machine turn. The snack machine gives them snacks.
The woman inside the station is still watching them. They can feel her watching them. They take their snacks and they go back to the platform.
They were the only people on the platform. Now they are not the only people on the platform. There is another person here.
The other person is wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. He is carrying his briefcase in his hand. He has taken the jacket of his suit off. It is getting warmer. He is holding the jacket in his other hand.
The man wearing a suit is not sitting on the bench. He is standing near the edge of the platform.
They sit on the bench. They have their snacks. The snacks are wrapped in brown paper. They take the paper off their snacks. They start to eat their snacks.
The man on the platform does not look at them. They are relieved that he does not look at them. He puts his briefcase down. He takes a handkerchief out of his pocket. He wipes his forehead with his handkerchief.
It is going to be a warm day. It will not be warm for much longer. The days are starting to get shorter.
They eat their snacks. They look at each other while they eat. They try to smile.
They do not smile.
They look at their snacks instead. They concentrate on eating.
They concentrate on eating their snacks and then they finish eating their snacks. They are sitting on the bench. They are beside each other. There is a slight breeze. They hold the wrappers their snacks were in. They do not want them to blow away.
They have not thought of anything to say. They know what is happening. They know what is going to happen. They do not need to say anything. There is nothing they can do about it. All they can do is wait for it to happen.
They hold the wrappers their snacks came in. They do not say anything.
They wait.
The man on the platform puts his handkerchief back into his pocket. He does not pick up his briefcase. He pushes up his sleeve to look at his watch. He bends over to pick up his briefcase.
They are sitting on the bench. They do not want to wait for what happens next. They want to do something. They want to say something.
They try to say something.
What they say is not what they want to say to each other. It is almost what they wanted to say to each other but it is not it.
It does not matter. It would not have changed anything.
The train is here.
He stands up. He puts his knapsack on his back.His knapsack had not been on his back. It had been on the bench beside him.
He bends over. He picks his suitcase up. She watches him put his knapsack on his back and then bend over to pick his suitcase up.
She is still sitting on the bench. She is holding her hands together in her lap. The train stops at the platform. She stands up. He is standing near the train. She walks towards him. She stands in front of him. She stands close to him.
She kisses him.
The station attendant opens the doors to the train. There are people on the train waiting to get off. The doors open. The people step off the train. They stand on the platform and then they walk across it. They go into the station.
They do not care that there are people getting off the train. They stand in the middle of the platform. They are young. They are kissing.
The station attendant blows a whistle. It means that the train is going to leave.
He is holding his suitcase in his hand. He steps away from her. He gets on the train.
The station attendant walks down the platform. He closes the doors to the train. She stands on the platform. She watches as the station attendant closes the doors to the train.
The station attendant blows his whistle again.
The train starts to move. She watches as the train starts to move. The train moves slowly and then it moves faster. It pulls away from the station. He is on the train. She is not on the train.
The train pulls away from the station and then it is gone.
She watches it go.