Soul’s station

There are some dresses a person just can’t wear again

A black one hangs over the edges of a laundry bin

Why a laundry bin belongs on a moving cabin?

God forbid I know

Some celebrations still call for tradition

Black is for tragedy

So are unknown contracts revealing load bearing walls

I felt its disappearance when her light went out

Behind the veil, who are we truly to each other?

Steam whistles

Chug chug chug chug chug

All aboard

What did that mean?

We’re moving

A man is across from me. His voice is comforting. We entered the cabin at the same time.

He seems to be unafraid of where we are going, though it’s unannounced to either of us where that is. I have a slight suspicion he knows somewhere deep within that commanding voice’s presence.

What scared the truth out of him, I wonder

We leave the cabin door closed now.

A week ago it was open when I got the call, “We found her body,” a friend said, as ‘Holy Night’ played English humour down the hall from the jolly compartment.

Apparently we still have to work on this train, mine consisted of Christmas Market’s opening in the cabin down the hall.

My father’s words came to mind, like crows cawing in protection, “God has a funny sense of humour.” I hear the statement from the time train that runs parallel to ours.

Yes dad he truly does, I think to myself as I force smiles, & fight tears in a melancholy state of being.

When I made it back to the cabin after my shift I see the man in my cabin.

Christopher’s expressions quickly cycled from surprise to get a grip.

It was the beginning of ‘strange times have found us.’ He looked perplexed.

“What is it?”

“I saw…for a moment…never mind.”

“No, please tell me. What did you see?”

“It’s going to sound crazy.”

“I’m good with crazy. I’m here for it.”

He hesitated before breaking the dam energy down, and letting the stream flow. “Ok… I saw a tall woman in the hall- a figure-shadow. It was standing behind you in the hall just before you stepped into the cabin. One moment it was there, and the next it was gone.”

I had never told him my friend was tall. I hadn’t even shown him a picture. He looked a little shaken like it hadn’t been the first time. His hands were unsteady when he held his coffee cup. He forced himself to regain his composure.

“Christopher? Do you believe it was her?”

“I don’t want you being alarmed. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“I’m glad you did.”

I waited patiently. I sensed he was going to say something.

“I don’t want to say it was her for sure…but yes I think it was her. I can’t tell you why I feel that way,” he paused. “Don’t think too much about it, okay.”

“I love you,” I heard in the ether, & echoes from the time train running parallel to ours.

Chug chug chug chug chug

This train moved.

I receive a letter from what now resembles the far away land of life.

This time it is my sister she says, “I think it would be good for you to wear the Christopher medallion. You can buy them at the church.”

I laugh as I lie my head down on his shoulder. I don’t need a medallion, & I’m nowhere near a church. He smiles at me.

One night after lying down in the weed compartment, we had to run off before we were seen by anyone else on the train.

We lie down in our compartment, and I see what he’s been hiding. I hear and see something attached to him. A black lined figure thing. I’m not much of a drawer, but it would be best described I suppose as a demon. I’m not sure what it was, but it wanted something from me. I turned my back & forced myself to sleep. It was probably just the weeds getting to me.

The next morning I told him what I saw.

“Are you scared of me?”

“No, of course not. I love you. Whatever that was, I know it wasn’t you. It was somehow attached to you.”

There in the cabin we love, in the manner two people can only do when they truly love one another.

We would fight like two fast cars being sent down a high speed freight train would.

It was time for him to get off the train. He wasn’t going to the end of the line with me afterall. He got off. We were both quite huffy, and distraught by the chaos, and detanglements of all that we were.

I at that time couldn’t see what was behind the veil.

He rode the train parallel to mine the whole time, patiently awaiting a window. Was I ready to know?

He popped in to see I clearly was not, so back on the parallel time travel train he embarked.

He watched me as the train twisted through the end of hell, skyrocketed to Jupiter, and then through to the underworld, picking up energy as the train chugged along through Mars, and then Venus.

He watched all along waiting patiently for me to sing us our song.

End of the line.

I’ll dream of him in the future when this train finally stops.

I’ll blame, & curse him for some time in between, but by the time my legs have washed off the train legs I’ll see the truth.

I’ll find it on the end of the line grounds.

I’ll love him forever as travel loves death & death loves travel; for travel knows sin, & death, knows resurrection. It was no coincidence that death brought us to each other, to love.

In the end we hold no judgment. In the end we see each other for who we truly are: two lonely humans carrying out heavy journeys. Sometimes it’s nice to be together for even when there’s volatile action, or destruction there’s a kind of peace unfounded in other humans.

A place of reconstruction that only travel could bring me, and only rebirth could bring him. It’s no coincidence my birth date lies on the day after the day of the dead, as I have come to know.

The thing they don’t tell you about the end of the line is that it’s just a transfer, and the transfer moves even quicker than the death, or time travel trains.

This train is the merge where earth angels find the only peace they can. When we awoke on the first train it was just the beginning of the end, to which, is always a new beginning, for there is no true end.

We discarded both the friend/passenger, & the demon that had latched onto us. The other trains would pick ‘em up, and send ‘em away from us. The friend to a baby, and the demon to the underworld. The trains will know where to take ‘em from there.

As for us we’ve done our parts, finished our contracts. We’ve seen the other side of the veil before 35. It’s just how fast we roll. Two fast cars rolling on one hell of a fast train ride, and you know what?

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now, God may have a funny sense of humour, but It’s also a heaven of a (Wo)Man when it comes to Its rewards.

So we’ll be counting cards on the life train ‘til the end of the line.

21 squared. Retired ‘til our next missions

Either way we’re black jack

Empress & Emperor of our realms.

In the words of Freddie Mercury,

“Don’t Stop Me Now-I’m having such a good time. I’m having a ball.”

Steam whistles

I hear the time travel train move along

Chug chug chug

I hear the death train move on

All aboard

I see the life train thrive on

Flowers growing on its roof

We’re going to be just fine