What The Conductor Saw

"Write a short story that takes place on a train"

Jack and Marsha Dore boarded the train along with one hundred other souls that day, he forgot just what it was that made this particular couple stand out in his mind. The conductor kept noticing them though throughout the four-hour trip, and the police would later be grateful for his excellent attention to detail.

As they made their way to their seats, he followed them so he could take their tickets. Jack was perspiring even though the day was cool, something like sixty-five degrees he thought, which was mild for this time of year in Wisconsin. Marsha kept grabbing at his belt loop as if she were about to lose him on the short walk to their assigned spot.

They sat down and nervously handed him their tickets, he had no idea why they seemed nervous, everything was in order and he punched the tickets and handed them their stubs. “Have a nice trip,” he said as he walked to the next patrons. Jack looked at Marsha as if they had just gotten away with murder and then he settled into his seat, still somewhat fidgety. Marsha frowned at him as if to say, ‘Can you just relax already?’ as she turned away and looked out the window.

The next time the conductor saw the couple was in the dining car, they sat at a table, guiltily sipping their iced teas as he walked by. The conductor tipped his hat at them and smiled, wondering the whole time what was up with them anyway. Everyone else on board was happy, relaxed, and ready for whatever adventure they were headed to, but not this couple. No, they looked as though they were running from something or someone.

What he could not know is that right before Jack and Marsha boarded the train, they had robbed the Kwik Trip for the train fare plus enough cash to get them a room once they got to their destination. The young couple’s plan was not thought out any further than just getting out of Wisconsin for a fresh start. They weren’t exactly bad people, just naive to the ways of the world. Jack loved Marsha and wanted whatever would make her happy. Getting out of Wisconsin fit that bill, so here they were.

Marsha had not wanted to rob the Kwik Trip; however, she lost the money she had saved for the trip and Jack was currently out of work and desperate. They talked it over while standing in the chip aisle, Marsha would lead the clerk into another area of the store while Jack emptied the register, then they would make a mad dash for the train station and hope they didn’t get caught. Marsha had claimed she needed the restroom and said it was locked, the clerk needed to come to her aide, right now! The clerk was happy to follow behind Marsha’s tight and swishing hips as they sashayed the way to the restroom, totally forgetting his job behind the counter was to protect the register at all costs.

Once they reached the restroom and found it unlocked, Marsha had to think quickly and said, “Oh, I’m terribly sorry to have dragged you all the way back here. “Thank you for coming with me,” she said and winked at him while her fingers trailed down the length of his arm. Of course, the idiot was practically drooling at this point, so he blushed and turned to get back to his place behind the counter. That’s when Marsha clocked him on the back of the head with a two-liter bottle of Sprite, then ran to the front of the store grabbing Jack as she plowed through the door. She’d only hoped she had knocked the clerk silly and they had time to purchase the tickets that would get them far away from here.

Meanwhile, back in the dining car, their meals had come (thank goodness they had been included in the ticket price), and Jack was finally relaxed enough to enjoy his chicken-fried steak. He stabbed a bite with his fork, pausing in the act to look up at Marsha who was smiling at him. “Looks like we made it Babe,” she said with her eyes, and Jack smiled back before closing his mouth around the bite on his fork. As if reading each other’s minds, they reached for their ice teas at the same time and clinked glasses in a celebratory gesture. This was also observed by the conductor as he looked back at their table before entering the next car.

Sometime later on, the couple was back in their seats, watching the city lights streak by as the train raced toward Chicago. Jack was sitting in the seat outside the window seat, allowing Marsha the best view. They were holding hands and he leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Maybe we should go all the way to Canada.” Marsha smiled and said dreamily, “That sounds lovely Babe, but where are we gonna get that kind of dough?” Jack replied that while they were in the room at the hotel, they would hatch another plan.

As the trip neared the end, Jack got up to walk to the restroom and passed the conductor once more. The conductor, whose name was Ralph, incidentally, noticed that Jack had a tribal tattoo on his left arm, right around his wrist like a bracelet. As he passed by Marsha on his way to the next car, he looked at her hands as they rested in her lap, she was still gazing out the window so she did not see him as he noticed that she had a matching tattoo on her right wrist. She was quite pretty, he thought, too pretty to have marred her skin like that with a cheap-looking tattoo. He never liked them anyway. How that must have stung though, so he had to give her props for being brave enough to tolerate that kind of pain.

Jack and Marsha had come from middle-class parents in a nice suburb of Wisconsin Dell, he was a fledgling artist who had been working part-time at a record store when Marsha walked in, looking for all the world like a Greek goddess. She had long, straight blonde hair, and the greenest eyes he’d ever seen. Jack was instantly smitten and sidled up next to her as she rifled through a stack of rock music albums. ‘Just another reason to like her’, he thought, ‘she has the same taste in music as me’. “Hello there,” he said, “Can I help you find something? My name is Jack, I would be happy to assist you in any way.” Marsha had stopped perusing for a minute and gazed up into his eyes. Smiling back at him she said, “Aw, thanks. I’m just looking really, too broke to actually buy anything. I like to window shop and dream a bit is all.” She took an instant fancy to Jack as well, with his dark good looks and mysterious air. He genuinely seemed to want to help, he wasn’t staring lecherously at her or acting like a perv. That was refreshing and not at all what she was used to.

The first kind thing Jack did for her was to buy her the album she had been dreaming about, the latest from Blue October, and then he asked her out for lunch if she could wait until his break. She was happy to, and they went and shared burgers and fries at the café around the corner from the record shop. They seemed to learn everything there was to know about each other during their thirty minutes or so in the café, or at least, all Jack needed to know about her. He just knew he didn’t want to be without her for one minute, so he asked her if she wanted to hang around until he got off and he would walk her home. That had been the beginning of their six-month-long relationship, now they had matching tattoos and were complicit in a crime together. Life moved fast in the big city. Marsha seemed willing to go wherever Jack led her, she had nothing at home keeping her there. Her parents cared about nothing but work, believing that the almighty dollar was going to save their marriage and propel them to some kind of fairy tale future, so she figured they’d never even miss her if she moved out and stayed with Jack. Which she did almost immediately after meeting him. The truth was, she had no job, no prospects for one, and pretty low self-esteem. She was like that country song- “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” at least that’s what Jack thought. He knew she was a free spirit, he cared not if she had a penny or ever made one. He only wanted to love her and take care of her, that’s all he desired in life at the moment.

During their first few weeks together, Jack observed that what Marsha lacked in book smarts she more than made up for with her street smarts. It was as if the shy beauty had been used to bargaining her way through life, like a pauper, even though she came from the same neck of the woods as he did. She had extensive knowledge of the train schedule, the bus routes, and the convenience stores all around town as if she lived on the streets instead of a 3-2-2 in the same neighborhood he came from. How they never met was a mystery, yet Jack was a year older and had attended a different high school than she did. She never liked school much, she skipped out half the time, yet still managed to graduate, just to please her folks and not cause trouble. She flew under the radar and kept a low profile, which worked in her favor at the present time. She had heard from her mom only twice since she moved out, Marsha convinced her she was safe with Jack and this was her choice, so let it be. She assumed her parents were too busy to care what she did anyway.

Back on the train, Marsha nudged Jack and said they were pulling into the station, get ready to bolt, she wanted to get to the hotel as fast as possible in case the cops had been alerted. Jack felt the same and started acting nervous all over again. She told him to “Be cool” and Jack appeared to calm down a little. The conductor bid them goodbye and thanks for traveling with Amtrak, pointing them to the train station where they could collect their bags. They each mumbled thanks and hurriedly ran across the street, anxious to grab their bags and go. Once they snatched up their bags, they turned to head the way of the hotel and that’s when they saw the conductor talking to the local police. Quickly they hailed a cab and literally dove in shouting, “Canal St Holiday Inn!” giggling like teenagers and thinking they had made a clean getaway. They only had the room for one night, so they checked in as quickly as possible and headed up to make the most of their evening and plan their next move.

After surviving the night with no one knocking on their door, Jack and Marsha began to relax a bit and thought they may have gotten away with the petty crime. Now they needed more money, however, so after checking out of the hotel, they stopped in a local park to sit and hash out a new plan. Turned out they had enjoyed their night of lovemaking too much to worry about the next step, so now seemed a perfect time. They looked quite conspicuous sitting in the park with their bags, however, which drew the attention of a passing beat cop. As he approached the couple, they sat frozen in place, heads down as if he wouldn’t see them sitting there, Jack frantically searching the area for a place to run. “Where are you two headed?” the cop said as he approached their bench in the park. “Oh, we are just resting here for a minute,” Marsha offered. “We are on our way to a friend’s place close by.” She smiled sweetly at the officer as Jack sat sweating in his shoes. ‘Thank God for her quick thinking’, Jack thought. Unfortunately for them, Marsha had unconsciously reached up to adjust her hat, her shirt sleeve pulled back just enough for the cop to see the tattoo the conductor had alerted them to. Looking at Jack now, the officer asked him to roll up his sleeves, please. Jack knew the gig was up, so he did as he was asked. He was no hardened criminal, he just wanted to be with Marsha and go build a life somewhere together. “You two need to come with me, we have you for a robbery back in Wisconsin.” Jack tried to plead their case, saying he was sorry and how much they loved each other and just wanted to get away together. “Let’s go down to the station and just talk about it,” the officer said, which gave Jack hope that maybe they would drop the whole thing.

Marsha knew better, however, she was no stranger to this kind of thing. She had watched how life went down on the streets, she had pulled some similar stunts in the past, she had just been smart enough to get away with it. Now it seemed she had been caught, there’d be no getting out of this one. Her impulse was to break free and run, yet she could not leave Jack high and dry like that. Moodily she tagged along, pulling her suitcase and grumpily looking at Jack out of the corner of her eye. She asked him under her breath as they walked ahead of the cop, “What are we going to do now, Babe?” “Don’t worry Honey,” Jack replied, “Maybe he will give us a break.” Marsha chuffed out a “Ha” as if she didn’t believe him for a second yet grabbed his hand with her free one. As they approached the busy intersection where the police station was located, Marsha spied a bus waiting at the stop with the door open. Risking a glance behind her, she noted that the beat cop was staring at his phone and she took the opportunity to yank Jack’s hand in that direction, saying, “Let’s go” as she pulled him along. The cop looked up just in time and shouted, “Hey! Stop!” but Marsha was quick on her feet and just as they clambered up the steps, the door shut, and the bus pulled away from the curb. Jack and Marsha reluctantly looked out of the window at the poor cop as they made their way to some seats in the back of the bus. “Now we’ve really done it,” Jack said as they plopped down on the vinyl-covered seats.

The bus was public transit, they rolled with it through several stops, scared to get off anywhere while trying to come up with a new plan. “We really should have thought this through more, Marsha. Maybe we should just turn ourselves in before we get into more trouble than we can handle.” He wanted to take care of her, but he was failing miserably. He was scared and without a plan, money, or resources in a strange city to him. Yet not so strange to Marsha. She had been here before, she just never told Jack about it. “Hang on a sec, Babe. I’m going up to the front to find out where we’re at.” She asked the bus driver where they were and realized they were close to the street where an old acquaintance of hers had a tattoo shop. Running to the back of the bus she looked at Jack and said, “I’ve got a new plan.”