Death and Life

Choo Choooooo!

The horn of the train blew loudly, waking the man from his deep slumber. He had no idea where he was, who he was, how he gotten on the train, or even his own name.

He stood, clumsily, and navigated around the train cab. No one else was inside the car. There were only brown leather booths for sitting.

The man walked around in search of any clues to his wearabouts. He looked out the window.

The train was on no tracks, and on no planet. It was barreling through outer space, headed into the darkness of the void with no real destination. The train was spinning on its axis, but from the inside felt like up was always up.

Confused the man walked to the next car. Expecting something different, he found only dissapointment, because this car looked the exact same as the one before. Where was he?

Car after car everything was looking the same. He sat down in a booth and tried to gather his insides. His head was pounding with confusion and fog, he felt groggy and tired. Now he cared not where he was, "Where am I going?"

The train did not appear to be slowing down.

"An object in motion stays in motion..."

"How can I get off this train? Do I want to? Am I in danger?"

Eventually the fellow found his way into the coal car, then into the part of the train where its controlled.

The train's steering wheel was a complex layout of buttons and levers that resembled a video game spaceship, from a universe that didn't exsist, in a time that hadn't happened. Somehow the man had an intuitive sense of how to drive the beast. But the problem wasn't driving. It was steering.

"Where am I going?"

"Is a man really in charge of his destination?"

"Am I the captain of my soul?"

The train hurled along through the universe. It touched the cosmos and grazed the planets. It passed the stars and raced the commets. It wrote poems and jumped off cliffs. It ate food and had good sex.

It did the things you and I wish we could. It raced through time on a mission to live. All that exsists passed the windows and everything that didn't exsist, the man imagined.

And while all this went on the man still sat confused with his head in his lap. "Where am I going?!" He cried.

He cried so hard the gods heard him. He whimpered so intesly that he lost himself. Everything in his life was happening to him, and if this went on the train would wreck, and we've all been to one of those.

The man laid down and died. In his death he saw the train. It drove from the place below, out of darkness, and into a burining star. Once the train exploded into atoms in his vision he woke back up, still in the part of the train where its controls are.

He walked to the caboose and looked behind him. Stepping out onto the edge, where he could see everything that passed by. The plantes and moons of course, but also the cities and towns, lovers and keepers, parents and sibilings, experiences and memories. Death, and Life.

He blinked, still filled with worry and voices of doubt.

He breathed, and heard his breath.

When he listened to his breathing the voices inside went quiet. Because you can't listen when you're making noise.

Then it made sense. He heard the train. And standing from the caboose he was able to get it back on track.

It was never meant to be on track. But he stopped worrying and started paying attention the all that passed him. Because, "I am the captain of this ship, and the master of my soul. I may not no where I am going, but I know where I am. And that's all we will ever have."