The mysterious train

It was nearly time. That time when John Blakeney would either revisit the eeriest and the most exhilarating experience, he, or come to think of it anyone in the history of mankind has experienced.

Exactly a year ago to the day, October 25^th, 2020, John boarded the EN 476 Metropol from Prague to Dresden. He had decided to visit Europe’s great cities. Something he’d always wanted to do in his youth but had never got around to it. Mainly due to a combination of work commitments and his long-term relationship with Sarah. They had now parted after four happy years and one excruciatingly unhappy one.

John recollected his thoughts from exactly a year ago as he rode the EN 476 Metropol from Prague to Dresden. Sarah had always rejected his proposals to travel through Europe; instead preferring beach holidays in the uninspiring Canary Islands. Looking back, they were so different in all aspects of life, music, friends and travelling, to name but a few.

The melodic repetition of the moving train was suddenly interrupted by the sound of hard steel against hard steel, gradually slowing the train down.

John had meticulously planned everything to the exact detail as his last journey on the EN 476 Metropol from Prague to Dresden. From the same clothes he was wearing—and after a lot of what seemed like musical chairs—to the same seat and carriage he had sat on. John was excited and apprehensive, things were falling into place, there was even the strong odour of a peculiar aftershave he had oddly recalled. He remembered thinking to himself, why would someone douse themselves with such an objectionable stench. Maybe it was a pleasant fragrance for the locals!

The train smoothed to a halt. John lifted the left cuff of his faded denim shirt, his black Pulsar watch showed the big hand pointing at 12, obscuring the little hand. It was midnight again, that time was now here. Was it a one-off, or could his painstaking plans allow him to revisit that inexplicable night 12 months ago to the second.

He’d dared not tell anyone; he’d kept it to himself like a child keeps its most precious toy. Who would have believed him anyway!

Time had stopped still; John had thought it was a prank at first. He remembers falling asleep partway through the tannoy announcement that ‘the train would remain in the station for an hour due to the clocks going back. This was so the train would arrive in Dresden at the correct time’. On awaking, he had noticed that all the other passengers were asleep. After a few bewildering seconds he had tried to speak to the passenger next to him but received no reply. He tried this with another passenger, still no reply. He eventually found himself shaking anyone within reach. Was this some kind of hoax, some uninspired sketch for a TV show, if so, it wasn’t funny. After finding himself sitting in the driver’s cabin, he thought there may be more to this than meets the eye. John felt a surge of curiosity and courage engulf his body as he vacated the driver’s cabin. He stood by the exit door and hovered his finger over the open button. Maybe there would be a television crew waiting for him or god forbid, the entire train station in a deep slumber. John’s eyes were transfixed on the button as he pressed it watching it change from green to yellow. Before he could look up, he felt the carriage immersed in light, definitely not what he would have expected at midnight.

He stood firmly planted to the carriage floor as he felt his eyes and mouth widen simultaneously. Outside the train John saw what he could only describe as a scene from a George Lucas movie, a metropolis of towering skyscrapers, vehicles of different shapes and sizes both on the ground and in the air. There were people that looked like him, and things that did not, all intermingling, going about what appeared to be their daily lives. A face stopped and looked at him. At the same time the door automatically closed.

John stood, rooted to the spot, his finger still hovering over the open button. It seemed an age before his legs could function again and he returned to the carriage where this strange happening had begun. He had sat in his chair, a myriad of thoughts cascading through his mind, then movement returned to the train. It was 1 o’clock.

‘There will be a number of trains affected by the time change’. Came the voice purring through the tannoy system, in perfect English glossed with a European accent. ‘passengers will be required to wait on the train.’ Hold on, John thought, I didn’t hear this part of the transmission last year. Maybe it was an incredible one-off, he knew it wasn’t a dream—it couldn’t have been—he felt it, saw it and smelled it. It would be something he would have to keep to himself for the rest of his days. ‘This is to prevent trains running an hour ahead of schedule. Thank you for your understanding’.

John inhaled an extra gulp of oxygen through his nostrils and sighed it out through his mouth, making up for the minute he had held his breath. Maybe it was for the best… but wait, his eyes caught a glimpse of the passenger opposite him, he was asleep. His neck uncontrollably flopped to the right. He looked to his left, the young couple and their child where in a trance like state. In fact, everyone around him was asleep. Was this really happening to him again!

John’s excitement was curtailed within a micro-second and transformed into shock. The man behind him had leapt to his feet and began bounding to the exit door. At the same time John’s movement had stopped the man in his tracks. The man jerked his neck backwards towards John. For a moment—though it could be argued an eternity—their eyes locked, their expressions mimicking each other’s to the point of comedy.

Noticing the man seemed to have an awareness of what he was doing and where he was going john broke the silence. ‘Do you know what’s happening? What’s outside the train’? John could have asked a dozen more questions without hesitation but was cut short.

‘I’m Maurice, Maurice Jacobs’. He straightened himself out as he approached John with his outstretched hand.

‘Pleased to meet you’.

The unmistaken odour descended around John; it wasn’t a coincidence. After all, this man was indeed on the EN 476 Metropol from Prague to Dresden last year.