Train of Thought.

I felt my cheek peel stickily from the cold floor of the train as I rose from my prone position. I began to look around the train cart searching for something to tell me where I was supposed to be headed. There was framed image that showed the train’s “Schedule”, schedule was an overstatement as there were times listed but no destination paired with them. I then began to look around for other passengers so I could ask what was going on, I didn't remember boarding a train, for that matter, I didn't remember… anything. There was no one else in this cart with me, “just what's going on here?” I began to worry.

As if sensing his building worry a garbled disembodied voice began to speak through a large intercom sat above the sliding door of the cart, “greetings conductor! I am aware you are quite confused as to the nature of your situation allow me to explain, you are currently in the mind of a young man named Clyde and this is the train of thought, you are a “Mini-Clyde” and your job is to keep this train running for the big Clyde, you accomplish this by helping Big Clyde think and process what's being said and providing responses for Big Clyde to use. Now tonight is a big night for the big man, he's going to dinner with a girl from his class and he really wants it to go well, so your job for the night is to keep him talking and to keep the conversation going and keep it engaging. Please continue into the cockpit conductor as Big Clyde will arrive at the restaurant shortly” the voice faded away for a moment before returning with one last warning “Oh and also don't run out of track conductor.” with this final ominous warning the voice fully faded away. None of this made much sense to me but on the other hand, there was the fact that I couldn't remember a thing before this moment and this train. I hesitantly approached the door under the speaker, grabbing the handle and pulling the door to the left, revealing the cockpit the voice had mentioned. Stepping into the cockpit I was greeted by a single table in front of a large wall-to-wall window, on the table sat a small intercom microphone and through the window, I saw the tracks ahead of me. These tracks seemed to be standing on nothing or rather they were floating because I couldn't see any solid ground under us just white puffy clouds sitting far below me, and serene blue skies surrounding me. There was what looked like a rectangular tv-screen-like hole in the sky in front of him, through this hole I could see the interior of a nice upscale restaurant and an attractive young woman sitting across from him. “This must be letting me see through “Big Clydes” eyes, no wonder he wants this date to go well.” I thought taking in the sight of the young woman who now was turned to the side addressing the waiter who had come to ask for their orders. She had ordered the chicken parm and a glass of wine. The waiter then turned to Big Clyde and asked him what he would be having, I panicked, would I have to answer for him? As I reached for the microphone preparing to mimic the woman's order he spoke. “I'll have the chicken piccata and ill also take a glass of wine, Thank you. I breathed a sigh of relief, “he can think for himself thankfully”. As time passed the waiter brought them their drinks and after thanking the waiter they began to sip their wine silently. I saw far ahead on the tracks that it abruptly fell off with no more tracks a few hundred feet down the line, I leaped for the microphone and began to wrack my mind for a conversation starter “the voice said she was in his class right?” as the thought crossed my mind I pressed the button on the microphone and spoke into it “so how are classes going?” just a moment after Big-Clyde mimicked what I had said and I began to calm down as I saw new lengths of track rising from the clouds below and clicking into place providing to me a way to avoid plummeting into the depths below. my breath caught as she responded, “I'm not too interested in talking shop while we're out we can do that anytime, let's just enjoy ourselves for the night and not worry about school.” the newly placed tracks ahead began to crumble and fall towards the clouds disappearing from sight. “Um ok speaking of relaxing what do you get up to in your free time? Any hobbies?” I barked the words panicked into the microphone in a way contradictory to their casual air, Big Clyde thankfully delivered them in their intended tone. The tracks rose.

As time passed and the date continued on I had to save the day multiple times “this guy is a horrible conversationalist, I kinda am hoping this date crashes and burns so I don't have to keep covering for him every time they meet up.” he thought ruefully. Big-Clyde seemed to be fairing fine on his own for now so I sank down to the hard ground by the table taking a seat and a well-needed rest, this was exhausting.

I blinked groggily wiping sleep from my eyes as alarms blared and the cockpit was flooded with a flashing red light, “shit I must have fallen asleep” I hopped up looking towards the hole in the sky and all I saw was the woman who by that point I had learned her name was Jennifer staring back at me blankly as if waiting for a response. The gaping hole in the tracks was swiftly approaching I had only a few seconds to think of a response to something I hadn't even heard, by this point my brain was working in overdrive trying to think of a response as the train was flying towards the clouds with no tracks beneath it. I grabbed hold of whatever I could to brace for impact as my vision was completely obscured by white misty clouds. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Big Clyde and Jennifer once again slipped back into awkward silence. This silence continued until the check was delivered and they went their separate ways. There was no second date.