The Journey

He looked at the stuffed seats. Laid out in so many rows. Took in the wide windows- covered with a tinted glass, with curtains drawn against the hot sun outside, the padded armrests with their cup holders. He sank gratefully into a seat by the window.

“Drink” and a brimming cup full of the coldest, freshest, purest water, misted with cold bubbles outside was thrust at him. He quaffed greedily, looked up to thank his benefactor- but the other was helping someone else. Someone who had boarded the train with him. He took another gulp as the train slowly pulled out of the station.

“Not as comfortable as it could have been”, this was the shrill woman who had been laughing noisily at the station. She sniffed and settled down next to him. Arranged her bags and bundles. Nudging and shoving as she fussed her things into place. Opposite him sat the smiling stranger who had given him the water.

“A window seat is better, but you don’t always get one” the lady was speaking. He did not feel like offering her his.
“I saw you in the corner at the station. Waiting” she continued. Clearly not one to be denied conversation.
“Yes under the tree”.

“With the purple lilac flowers”

“By the green shiny bench. It was a good place to sit. I sat there a long while.” He smiled.

“It was a nice stop. Too quiet though” she carried on.

Not too quiet, just peaceful. He wanted to say. But kept silent. He did not want to meander off into obscure discussions. It was just enough to keep the conversation going.

“Now this place is very very different” she was saying. “ As different as is possible. But nicer in some ways. A little chilly here, don’t you think”

“Well the sun was hot, but nicely drowsy in the shade. “ he spoke.

She looked at him strangely. Then stopped speaking as she pulled out a book from one of her numerous bags.

He glanced outside. At the landscape rushing by. It was arid, desert –like. No shade for miles. Just short scrubby grass and open brown earth. Cracked, parched dry.

“How quickly it changes” he wondered. From the hot sun but definite shade of the place he had got in. And then drew the curtain against the outside. He glanced around, taking in the people who had boarded with him. The newly weds cooed to each other in a corner. The lady next to him dozed over her paperback. A few young men sat talking to each other in one of the back rows. He had seen them trying to divide a coffee into three at his train station. The stranger, give of water opposite him smiled at a lovely little girl who had darted in the middle of the aisle. He wondered why her parents did not guard her more. She might get hurt- or get off at the wrong place.

The train slowed down. His dozing companion jerked awake and quickly gathered her belongings. “My stop “ she breathlessly announced to no one in particular even as she galloped out, her bags bursting open.

A double seat to himself, he was thinking, as a young man slipped in next to him. “You do not mind, do you. Its more light here”.

It would be churlish to refuse.

“You were standing by the tap that was dripping water, feeding a bun to the stray dog” he said by way of an introduction.

“Was I, I always feed strays.” The young man did not seem disposed to talk.

“Yes it ran a little after the train when it was leaving, I could see it following us” he tried to prolong the conversation.

“There will be other dogs” The young man got up ” I think my friends are calling me”

The smiling stranger leaded forward. “Are you comfortable now? You were sweating a lot when you came in.”

He smiled in reply.

The stranger continued “She almost missed her stop. Its quite easy to do that, this train does not stop that long. “
He dew the curtains and looked out. The train had moved much closer to the distant mountains. The topography had changed too. It was greened. He exclaimed at the difference.

“Yes, just a little journey, and it is a world of difference here” said the stranger.

“So unlike the hot sun and the shady trees”

“The sun is balmier, cooler- cold almost here”. He shivered as he heard it.

“But of course, less chance of a sun stroke” and the stranger grinned.

“I take it this is your first trip”

“Yes I got in for the ride. It is unlike anything I have done before”, he found himself opening up.

“But then isn’t everything you do unlike anything you have done before”

He paused for a suitable reply.

The stranger continued. “So where do you want to get off? Here” Even as he gestured, the train slowed and rounding a curve stopped at a little station. People spilled out . No one got in.

“No, I think I will go on a while.” And even as suddenly the train moved on. Seemingly jauntier and lighter now.

He looked around. There did not seem to be anyone familiar other than him and the stranger now.

“Where do you get off?” he asked

“At my journey’s end” the stranger smiled, “Like you will when you reach the end of yours”

“But I am just here for the ride….No particular end in mind” he spoke.

“But you have to have to have an end in mind or sight.Like those people did”.

“But they were here for the journey”

“For part of your journey.”

“Well from my stop to their destinations”

“Some folk were here before your stop. Others will be here beyond your destination.”

“But I am here for the ride”

“Everyone is”

“But you said they have a destination in mind”

“That too, and the journey too.”

“A short journey for some like the lady near me”

“It is your perception. It was long enough for her”

The train slowed and stopped again. By a broad river.

“Some more people have got off”

“They shared part of your journey” said the stranger.

“If you call it sharing. We hardly glanced at each other”

“You did share it whether you were aware or unaware of them”

“No one has been here from my stop”

“Well, no one has the exact same journey”

“But you were here….and are still here…”

“But soon I will get off too. My destination will approach after a while.”

“I guess I will wait for the train to return to my stop”

“It does not. It does not take the return route.”

“So where do I go”

“Well, only you can decide”

“But I do not know”

“Oh yes you do.You know full well where to go.”

“I know where I come from.”

“That hardly matters here. What matters is where you go.”

And smiling the stranger stepped off.