Dating : The Train Girl (Jack’s side of the story) Sometimes I come to the train station in whichever…

He’s a boy living in hope but running from home.

She’s a girl living in style and fell in love for the first time.

The Train Girl

(Jack’s side of the story)

Sometimes I come to the train station in whichever random town I find myself in and sit on the bench closest to the platform. I sit there with a ticket and no idea where I am headed. It’s better than sitting on the side of a street and watching people either pity me or look at me in disgust. I found myself on the streets a year ago. As crazy as it sounds sometimes it’s safer on the streets than in your own home, so I left. It’s the only place I have so I know one day I’ll have to return and I aim to so I can get my life together one day. But when it’s a home filled with drugs and abuse it’s not one you want to return to. I chose to get away for a while. I needed my life to be quiet for a bit. So, I sit on a train with no care in the world where I’m going and think about what I’m going to do with my life and try to form a plan for when I go back so that I can get out of there and make something of myself.

I look over towards the machines and see a girl struggling with the ticket machine. She is beautiful. I want to help her but if I talk to her, she’ll know I’ve been living rough and ready on the streets. Even I find myself unapproachable to people so of course she won’t want to talk to me. I’ll just keep my head down as usual. Suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder “excuse me “ the girl speaks. Feeling completely embarrassed within, I turn around with a brave face and ask the girl if she is having trouble with the ticket machine as if I didn’t already know. She has a beautiful smile and didn’t seem so care about my appearance, either that or she didn’t notice. But I’m glad. I’m going to put up a confident front so that she doesn’t see just how nervous I actually am that someone is talking to me. I help her with the machine while chatting to her. Suddenly I don’t feel as though I have to put up a confident front, there is something about her that I find myself enjoying talking to her. I notice she doesn’t feel comfortable with her surroundings so I point that out and turns out I’m right. This is her second time using public transport, I wonder why that is. But I don’t ask, that would only come across as being nosey. As I sat back down on my bench, I made sure to sit when she had her back turned so that there was a chance she didn’t see my trolley parked with my belongings such as blankets and backpacks of clothes and food. Somehow, I don’t think she noticed, she began to sit down beside me so I placed my hand on her arm and enticed her to sit on the other side of me so I could hide the trolley. I learn so much about her, her name is Maddison, she come all the way from Galway, she has long beautiful red hair and has an elegance about her. I still find it humbling that she wants to even entertain me. We look like complete opposites; I look scruffy I haven’t had a proper shower in a year and she’s dressed very formally. We seem to connect, she asks me where I’m travelling to, I can’t tell her that I’m homeless. I say I don’t know hoping that would be the end of it and just when I think it is she proceeds to ask “is it a spur of the moment sort of thing or?” Suddenly, I find myself saying “The thing about life is, if you never take chances and just stick to what society wants you to be then you’ll never truly know yourself and sooner or later you’ll be 60 if you’re lucky enough to make it to that age. You will have missed all there is to see in the world and for what?”. What have I just said? I have definitely scared her off now if somehow, I haven’t already. But she looks at me and forms a smile saying “Even if I’d like to disagree to that I couldn’t. You are right. Everyone naturally falls into a job and bills come in and we stress and sooner or later ten years go by. Then another ten and then our kids are having kids and we become grandparents. It’s scary actually”. I gaze at her realising how alike we are even if we come from two completely different worlds. It was comforting. We talk back and forth and suddenly realise an hour has went by. I’ve learned so much about her within that hour. It’s like I’ve known her my whole life.

Suddenly the train pulls up. I feel a lump in my throat at the thought of Maddison getting on and travelling all the way back to Galway. I realise this is the first and last conversation I’ll have with her. She jokes before realising that I will in fact miss her and suddenly she drops her bags and reaches for a hug. I quickly contemplate the hug because I haven’t properly showered in a year but the sudden knowledge that this will be the only hug I’ll get from her, assured me that I needed to give her one. I couldn’t help but hug so tight as I felt so grateful to have met her. Being homeless, I learned how little people want to talk to you. People avoid me because they automatically assume I’m high on drugs or smell. But in actual fact I’m doing this for myself. I tell Maddison to go and catch her train before she misses it and with that she hops on. I turn around intending on sitting back down on my bench and suddenly Maddison shouts my name. “Jack, get on the train with me to Galway” I couldn’t believe my ears. Is she mad? Realisation flows through me as I realise, she has seen my trolley. She isn’t judging me; she wants me to come with her. Thoughts fill my mind. I look around me and see my trolley, I have nothing here to hold me back and she’s the love of my life. I find myself grabbing my bag of clothes and running to the train to Maddison. “Are you sure about this? What if there’s no room on the plane?” I ask. “There is, my father owns the pane” I begin to realise she isn’t just elegant, she’s rich. I look into her eyes and notice they look at mine the way I look at hers and question how did I get so lucky to have met Maddison.

-tamara-catherine