Off the Rails

Off the Rails

This can’t be right can it? He paused at the streetlight and there it was across the street. It was like the first time he had seen it. He had never actually stepped inside the building, it was just forever there, like one of those places that needed to be there otherwise the whole city would cease to exist.

If someone had asked him about the train station in his town, he would say, Of course, we have one! I don’t know If anyone uses it though. It was one of those structures where the phrase ‘Back-in-the-Day’ comes into play, but most people his age assumed it was a fairly empty building. You know one of those buildings with stereotypes plastered on every wall, dogmatically blinding the eyes of people who now wonder why young people are so easily insulted these days. 

But as Nique stood across the street looking at the entrance to the train station he was utterly abashed at all these people. He looked around as if a billboard was going to suddenly pop into existence explaining this influx of people wanting to come to this shitty little town.

Nique crossed the street and scanned the doorways wondering which was the Entrance and which was the Exit. They were clearly marked but everyone else, it seems, had agreed that these were simply suggestions. He approached one of the doorways and became acutely aware of the space he was taking up in this universe. Somehow this multitude of beings has mastered the art of bending, twisting, and rotating their various body shapes, without actually looking at how they were avoiding one another. He eventually stepped forward and wormed his way in through one of the openings. He was sure that he had bumped at least three people but no one seemed to care.

A whole new world opened up to him in the blink of an eye. He moved off to the side, out of traffic, and couldn’t help but look up. His senses were betraying him, the height and length of this building was ridiculous. He couldn’t help but think this is how a companion feels stepping into the Tardis for the first time. He pictured the outside of the building in his mind and sizes began to match but the building seemed so indistinct in his memory. It was obvious that they had done some major updates to the inside of the building because it definitely didn’t match the outside.

There was some wear and tear of course it wasn’t like it was brand new but the number of arteries shooting off from this main hub was a little dizzying. There were mini shops everywhere as well, as if someone grabbed a bunch of food trucks and market stalls, and smashed them together side-by-side. All the different signage was an assault on the eyes but informative nonetheless. If you had the urge to eat tacos, buy an umbrella or pickup a used book then they could all be satisfied here.

In the middle of each wall sat a giant clock face that he assumed had the same time as the numbers on his watch, told him it was 1:00pm, so he went to grab a coffee at one of the many choices available to him.

Why Franks’s Coffee was better than Earl’s Coffee across the way he might never know but that was where he was headed. The burly, man that Nique guessed was Frank came to the counter, “What can I get ya stranger?”

Nique played along thinking it would be funny, “How about a cup of the black stuff?”

Frank didn’t seem amused as he handed him a Full paper cup and pointed toward the side where all the coffee accouterments were stacked. 

He ripped open some sugar packs, and an image of Frank and Earl materialized in his head. The two men making their way to the middle of the station… traveling patrons suddenly frozen as the two of them come face to face… an empty coffee cup rolls and tumbles between them as a train whistles in the distance… Suddenly they break out into an argument over why bamboo coffee filters are superior to bleached paper filters and chaos breaks out! Creamers spill, crumpled sugar packs get tossed, stir sticks get broken a real Hatfield and McCoys situation of the Dark bean persuasion!

He took a moment to look around, and once he saw it he grabbed a seat next to a broken Soda machine on the East side of the station. The tables and chairs were bolted to the floor and made out of a rubber coated steel mesh, probably easy to clean he thought. He cleared off a table, tossing some empty food boxes in the bin and picking up a crumpled bag that was on the ground, and after a quick last check to make sure there was nothing on the seat he sat down, relaxed, and enjoyed his coffee. He looked at the clock again and again, had to look at his watch, Ok, 1:05… still lots of time he told himself and the lockers were right across from him so he waited patiently.

Why was he here in the first place? Well, his curiosity had got the better of him earlier in the day as he was Reddit looking for NSFW posts. He came across one that was titled    r/NoQuestionsAsked and clicked on it. It read as follows:

Want to make a quick Grand and happen to be in the area of Brooktown Station then follow these instructions with no questions asked. At 1:30pm there will be a black duffel bag in locker 1350 on the West side of the station. I will leave a key in a bag crumpled on the floor next to the Out-of-order soda machine on the east side. Take the bag from the locker and find a seat on the South side of the station. Put the duffel bag on the ground by your feet and wait. Someone will join you after some time leave a book on the table for you with the money in it and leave with the duffel bag, wait another ten minutes, and then leave. Once again no questions asked.

Luckily his phone had a bad habit of taking screenshots with the slightest move, and as he swapped hands to refresh the page it did just that. And once the page had refreshed the post was no longer there. Whoever posted it took it down very quickly assuming that was enough time for someone to take it seriously and follow through. That someone was him. He could use a grand, who couldn’t? the only thing he was worried about was whether or not he was the only one who read it. The station wasn’t far away so why not? What’s the worse that could happen?

So here he was. He pulled the key out of the bag, pocketed it, and tossed the bag in the bin. At this moment, he suddenly looked around and became a little wary of the others that were sitting near him. Should he have left the table after getting the key? What if someone else came looking for it. He tried to put the thought out of his mind cause he had never been in a fight in his life, in fact he barely had an aggressive feeling about anything. What the hell would he have done if someone confronted him? He bolted upright at this thought and probably looked like a man possessed as he looked around at others to see if someone was looking at him.

He calmed himself. Once again he realized that nobody was paying any attention to anything here. It made sense, this was a fantastic place to have a shady plan. People made it a point to not draw attention to themselves. It was close enough to the time and nobody had come by to drop anything off, I wonder if someone already took it? Nique walked over to the lockers trying his best to not look suspicious, that plan, of course, made him look especially suspicious. 

He located the locker and slid the key in, he looked around to see if anyone had noticed the sound but the din inside the station was deafening he could have dropped a bomb in there and no one would have noticed. Sure enough, a large black duffel bag was shoved in there and as he pulled it out he could feel that it wasn’t one large thing, it was a group of things inside the bag. All angular, like boxes maybe, individual items in boxes he thought. Once it came clear of the locker door its full weight suddenly brought his arm towards to the ground.

He pulled up last minute so that it wouldn’t crash into the tiled floor, but it definitely wrenched his shoulder. He rotated his arm a little realizing he was going to pay for that tomorrow. A sign at the top of the locker said ‘When finished, place the key inside the locker and close the door.’ So he did and made his way to the south side of the station. The weight was manageable once you knew how heavy it was. 

So after leaving the Hatfield and McCoy area, he moved on to Battle of the Kawaii Monsters as a couple of shops on the south side both sported anime-styled, figurines in their windows. How could these places make any money? He thought as both places seemed like they were selling the exact same thing. Then once again the number of people moving about this building answered that for him. It wasn’t about aiming for the target audience it was about having the stock available on any given day. 

Nique found a table, put the bag on the ground near his feet and began scanning the crowd to see if he would notice the person coming for the “pickup”. If it wasn’t clear by now, Nique had quickly considered himself quite the little heist mastermind. Daniel Ocean would have been proud he thought to himself, I could totally have given Rusty a run for his money.

“Hey Steve! How are you?! Man you look great!” A woman slipped into the seat across from him so quickly his body jerked involuntarily at her appearance. He looked around half expecting to see a door from another dimension right beside them with a sign that read “Shady Person Dimension” written across it.

“Wow, how long has it been?” He voice suddenly brought him back to the table. “I mean Highschool right? We had Mrs, Stevenson’s English class together! Oh man, do you remember Tanya’s grad party? She was so pissed at her parents for going away on her big day that she invited everyone and fuckin destroyed the house! Haha!” Nique was not only stunned at her sudden appearance but she was also quite striking! She was talking so quickly and matter-of-factly that he didn’t want it to end. In fact, he found himself scanning his memory to see if she was actually in his English class.

Then as quickly as she appeared her tone changed, “Oh, and thanks for this.” She said pulling out a worn copy of the Orient Express and placing it on the table between them. He noticed the hundred dollar bills tucked neatly throughout its pages and picked up quickly shoving it in his inner jacket pocket.

She stood up and already had the duffel bag looped over her shoulder, Nique looked down to see that he didn’t even notice when she had picked it up. She looked him dead in the eyes and said, “Nique, things aren’t always what they seem. People aren’t born to do bad things, they learn them like anything else. What one person has the stomach for another may not. So don’t think twice about this day, go home, hop online, and forget this ever happened. You have a quick grand now with no questions asked go live your life.” She turned and melted into the crowd of people at the station.

Everything happened so fast he realized he didn’t even say a word the whole time she was there. Her last words made his stomach turn as he replayed them in his head, How did she know my name? 

He got up and left the train station as quickly as he could, his anxiety skyrocketing as he stumbled through the Exit. He looked back at the building and it looked even more alien to him than before. He was suddenly scared to wake up the next day, how many others were involved? What should I do? What would you do?

The End.