Charlotte's Journey

As soon as she stepped onto the platform, she remembered what it felt like when she first got to ride on a train. That was a long time ago, when she had been a little girl of ten, with brown pigtails. But strangely nothing seemed to change. The train was still the same shiny red she remembered, the steam billowing out of the locomotive, the familiar whistle, and the station being as busy as it was all those years ago. 

Charlotte Brewer was now in her eighties, and she had returned. She herself looks different now. The brown hair she once had was now gray, and she wore spectacles as a result of worsening eyesight. But her excitement and spirit hadn’t changed a bit.

“One ticket, please.” She said to the man at the ticket booth.

“One ticket? Here you go. Enjoy your trip.”

She walked with her ticket in her purse through the busy station, with people both young and old. Maybe it did feel different, in a way. She just couldn’t put her finger to it.

“ALL ABOARD!!!” Shouted the conductor. 

Charlotte, along with the other last few people, boarded the train. The inside of the train still had the same shiny, wooden interior. She took a seat by the window, and kept her purse on her lap. 

“Where are you going?” asked the woman next to her. She was probably a little older than Charlotte, but seemed to have the friendly curiosity of a child.

“I’m going to meet my husband. I haven’t seen him for two years.” Charlotte replied.

“Oh, I’m meeting my husband too. I haven’t seen him for five years. I’m looking forward to seeing him so much! Aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m happy that I’ll get to see him. Good man, he was. Served in the navy during the second world war.”

The woman just nodded and smiled.

Charlotte turned her gaze to the window, as the train was starting to pull out of the station. They were departing already, and she wondered how long the trip would be. 

                                                               ****

“Charlotte, keep up!” Mother exclaimed, turning back to look at Charlotte, while also holding her purse with one hand, and also holding the hand of Johnny, her younger brother.

“Coming!” She replied, running to catch up. She pushed past people, young and old, rich and poor. It was the summer of 1924, and she and her family were going for a vacation stay at the sea. Charlotte had never seen the ocean before, but she could imagine the roaring blue waves, the grainy sand, the cry of gulls overhead, and the hot sun. The fresh air would be good for her, different from the air in the city. She wanted to do everything people did at the beach; slurp ice cream, walk on the boardwalk, build sandcastles, and swim in the ocean. But it was also her first time on the train. The train was something new to her as well, and at the moment it seemed like there were surprises and new things. 

She managed to catch up with her parents, and they all boarded the train. It had a shiny wooden interior and cushioned velvet seats. How grand!

“Can I sit by the window?” She asked.

“Yes Charlotte, now get out your ticket, they’re coming to punch the tickets now.” Mother said.

The train let out a final whistle, and they were off. The train chugged forward, slowly first, then fast. They were pulling out of the station. Charlotte pressed her nose on the glass window, watching people as they left. 

“Can I have your tickets, please?” A man with a hole puncher asked. After he finished, he said,”Have a nice trip!”

She fell asleep on the train soon afterward.

****

The train jolted forward, shaking the passengers, and waking up Charlotte in the process. She had a dream, or rather, a memory of her first trip on the train. How bizarre, she thought, Why am I dreaming about that? 

To distract herself, she got a newspaper from the rack next to her. It was dated from 1990, ten years ago. She unfolded the newspaper, and read the headline: Eastward Train Station Closes.

The train station had closed ten years ago! Of course she already knew, because she had read the newspaper ten years ago. That must be what was so strange to her back at the station. Despite being closed a while ago, the place was still good as new as it had been when she was a girl.

Charlotte turned her gaze to the window. They passed rolling countryside, dotted with cows grazing, and a barn painted green. Strange to paint a barn green, it would match the trees and you’d hardly notice it. But she had noticed it. She had also noticed it when she first rode the train. She then saw two teenagers on the side of the road, walking and holding hands. The girl looked strangely familiar to Charlotte, but then she realized the girl was Charlotte. She remembers the day when she had travelled to the countryside, six or seven years after her first train trip. She had met a boy whom she loved and he loved her too. 

****

The year was 1931, and although the depression had spread across the country, it surely wasn’t enough to separate the two. It was a hot summer day, and Charlotte had been sent to her aunt and uncle’s place, especially since her father couldn’t support the family after losing his job. Her aunt and uncle had neighbors, including a boy a year older than she, by the name of Peter. Soon after arriving, she developed a crush on him, and finally had the courage to confess when summer was ending. Turns out, he loved her too and they spent her last day there just walking on the road and waving at the train passing by. During fall and winter, she was rather lonely, for she was at home but without seeing Peter. She could only write letters and occasionally call. Spring came, and she once again returned to him and stayed for spring and summer. It was like the tale of Persephone. Now eighteen, she had spent every day with him, racing around the countryside, climbing trees, fishing in the creek, and biking to the town for ice cream. He proposed a year later, when Charlotte was nineteen and Peter was twenty. It was 1933, and being a decade when money was scarce, they only had a small simple wedding, only inviting their families. For their honeymoon, they travelled on the same train to the seaside where she spent her summer nine years ago.

****

Charlotte blinked. The couple she had seen on the road were gone. 

Am I seeing my memories on this train? Are my memories coming back to me as I depart?

The train kept moving on, and as it moved she kept seeing stages of her life out the window. Things she hadn’t thought of for years were coming back to her now, as well as cherished memories she had cherished for years. Funny how they call it a train of thoughts.

The train started slowing down, before coming to a complete stop. The station they were at was a small simple one, not as grand as the one she left behind. Looking out the window, she saw soldiers in green uniforms, and navy men wearing blue sailor uniforms. Their families were there as well, and Charlotte saw herself, her daughter, and Peter, who was wearing a navy uniform. Charlotte saw herself in tears, sad that Peter was leaving her for the next few years.

****

1942. Charlotte and her seven year old daughter, Sophie were seeing Peter off at the station, before he left. His train was going to be there soon, taking him to a foreign land where the war raged, away from their safe and familiar home.

“Don’t worry,” he said as Charlotte wept, “I’ll be back sooner than you know it. And...and I’ll write letters to you every day. I’ll be thinking of you every second I’m there.”

“I’ll miss you, but I just can’t bear living without you. You are the only reason I stay alive.”

“Stay strong. For yourself, for Sophie. I will return.”

And with that, he left, looking at her from the train window as the train was leaving, knowing he wouldn’t see her for a while. But even he was unsure of whether or not he’ll be coming back.

During the war, Charlotte had another child, not long after he left. A boy. She named him Johnny, after her brother. She read letters from Peter to Sophie and the newborn. Both children had resemblance to their father, and were a reminder to her of the man overseas. It was like seeing him again. Wartime became a daily thing in people’s lives. Air raid drills, food rationing, and men leaving their families. Her brother, Johnny, left a year later, and a year after that, she received news that he was killed in action. Her parents were grieving after his death, and her mother died of influenza after the war was over, but Charlotte believed it was grief she had died of. But God had spared Peter, who was on his way home in 1945. As soon as he had stepped off the train, she hugged him for a long time, glad he was with her again.

****

“Are you alright?” 

Charlotte turned her gaze to the speaker, who was the woman whom she talked with earlier.

“Oh! Yes, I was just thinking.”

“We’re almost there. Can you believe it?”

She shook her head. 

The woman was right. The trip was almost over and it was almost time to depart.

A man came, holding a hole puncher. Charlotte gave him her ticket.

“Have a nice trip!” The man smiled, and he looked exactly the same as the man who punched the tickets on her first trip. She looked out the window, and the train was now passing by a cemetary. She saw herself, from only two years ago, kneeling over a gravestone. The Charlotte she saw was setting down some flowers.

****

Peter Brewer

October 12, 1913 - April 3, 1998

Charlotte wiped some tears away, as she set down some flowers. He was gone now, and she knew it would be her turn soon. She is eighty-four now. Her father had died in the 1970s, and her children had children who were growing up. She gave the gravestone one sad smile, and started to walk away. 

Two years later, as a new year, new decade, new century, even a new millenia started, Charlotte died in her sleep. 

****

The train stopped. 

“Last stop, heaven.” Someone said.

Charlotte stood up, and took one last look at the train. She had been travelling through different moments of her life and she was now going to see Peter, Johnny, her parents even. And the train, her beloved train, that had taken her to her destination. The train that she rode as a little girl of age ten. But she could remember the day as if it were yesterday. She stepped off to a station, made of gold! Old souls that had been there waiting for their families to join them in the new life. And she saw her Peter, smiling at her.

“Nice to see you again my dear.” He said.

She looked back to see the train leaving.