One shot: The Local train

The Local train

She sat in the local train, her mind a mess. This was a fast train she got in. It being a friday evening didn't help a bit.

It was crowded and if it weren't for the seat she got to sit on, her razor thin patience must have snapped.

Stations moved past and she tried to do her damnest but couldn't get the disturbing thoughts out of her head.

How different life had been when she were younger. She might not have been independent back then, but at least she was happy. Now however, she is stuck in a dead end job she didn't enjoy, with a boss that hates her with a vengeance, who would pick little things about her, point it out every minute to show how much of a loser she was.

It wouldn't get to her most of the days but on days like these, where she wasn't her strongest, the verbal shunting from her boss was the last straw.

The weight on her shoulders felt too heavy to carry on with. She felt dejected and alone, but most of all she felt the need to cry. Right now.
And try as she might, she couldn't stop her eyes from filling up.

It was how he had seen her. The girl in white puff sleeves shirt, and grey trousers. Amongst the people who are busy in their phone, she was the only one looking out of the window, clearly her thoughts running abuzz.

As stations passed, the crowd thinned, men and women got down, everybody remaining got seats. There were only a few in the compartment right now, and he sat right across the girl, with his niece next to him.
He saw her glazed but wet eyes, the tears that were to fall.

Next to him, his niece was looking up at him, her large eyes purposefully pulled out as puppy dog eyes. The little girl didn't like it one bit he was leaving today. To make it up to her, and to spend more time with her, he had gone to pick her up from school and thought to take her out for an ice cream.

He smiled tenderly at his niece, his hand passing through her head.

"Do you want to hear a story?" He asked.

The little girl's face broke into a small smile and she nodded her head expectantly.

"Okay" he said clearing his throat.

"Once upon a time, in a far away land stayed a young girl. She was beautiful, smart and the best dancer in town.

She was studying in a boarding school, away from her family. She was happy in the school, unlike most kids who were homesick. There were problems back in her house, hence her parents wanted her to stay in a place where she would not be disturbed by any of these.

That day she had the auditions for a dance competition she had been looking forward to, for the entire year. Everybody knew if she had performed for auditions, she will be selected to perform on the stage for finals. But there was an unexpected problem..."

As his voice trailed off, he had casually looked up at the girl sitting across and saw her attention was captured by the story too. Looking back at his niece, he smiled and continued "That day she gets a call saying her parents will visit. She was very happy. It's been eight months and she had not seen them. Plus it was her big day. She hoped they would see her perform. She hoped they will be proud.

She had been restless the whole day in class, excited as she was. She could not concentrate in any class. She was looking out of the window continuously. Once her classes were over at 3, she goes and sits at her favorite spot, under the bench at the Peepal tree, waiting for her parents. An hour pass, there was no sight of them. Another hour passes and the auditorium has been filled with people. The selection committee has already assembled and the performances begun. But she was still waiting by the tree. She had not gone to the auditorium. Another hour passes. She goes to the principal's office to make a call to her parents. She couldn't reach them.

Dejected, she goes back to the auditorium as her friends force her to. The auditions were about to end and hers was the last performance.

She goes there half-heartedly. But as she stands on the stage, with her friends expectantly cheering for her, she closes her eyes for a moment and just listens to the cheer. The loud defeating voice she was hearing was all her friends and people that believe in her. It was all their expectations on her she was hearing.

She opened her eyes and smiled at them. And when the music started, she had given her performance and people who were there in the auditorium that day say they had never seen her dance that beautiful. It was her best performance ever."

"Her parents didn't come that day Mamu?"

"They couldn't. They had a flat tire and had to stay the night somewhere. They had come the next day."

He saw the troubled eyes of the little girl. There was a small "Oh" of disappointment. He knew what she were thinking. She wished her parents came the previous day itself to see her perform.

Pulling the little girl to sit on his lap, he had told her "Sometimes things are not perfect. They are not in our control. They don't happen the way they should. If we give up, we won't have a story to tell. She had focused on something she loves to distract herself that day, and what happened, she had eventually won the first prize, her parents when visited her for the annual day saw her perform and receive the first prize from the chief guest. Your present actions go a long way.

That day when she had seen her parents stand up to cheer for her, she was doubly happy."

That got his little girl thinking. He kissed her head and had seen it had also kept the girl sitting across him thinking.

As their station arrived, they got down, and he had seen the young lady sitting across them still had another station to go, as the next station was the last stop.

As the niece and the uncle got down the station, the young woman had seen them pass and her eyes followed their path. Her tears were now dried up, as she got herself hearing the story the tall man with a stubble sitting across her has recounted.

Though it wasn't directed at her, the story, she was glad she could hear it, for it calmed a part of her. As she see them depart, she sees them get down the train, and she sees the man look at her now, and in a surprising gesture puts his index finger and thumb at the either corner of his mouth and push them up, asking her to smile.

There was no malice in his eyes. His eyes were just kind and warm. She knew then whom the story was for. She felt like the girl in the story who was in the auditorium, who heard the cheer of her friends and decided to not let them down. Though she didn't know this man, she still felt the need to not let him down. She had smiled then, for the first time in the day and raised her hand in a half wave, and had seen both the man and his niece wave back at her. Something in her heart felt warm as the train picked up the pace.