"The Train"
by
Geoffrey Lewis

There was hardly anyone on the train, as it moved through the countryside. The snow covered land slipped smoothly by. Way out there I could see a lonely house now and again just turning on their lights against the cold on coming night. Two thick coated horses in the almost dark, steam coming out of their nostrils, eating hay, then they were gone. The sky was quickly dark, the stars were crisp through the chill air.

Wasn't very warm on the train. A man was asleep at the other end of the car, his coat rolled up for a pillow and a Christmas present had fallen on the floor. A few seats away a young woman sat with her baby. She was staring out the window. She saw me looking at her, reflected in the window, and she half smiled at my reflection and she stared beyond that out into the cold dark landscape that was slipping away. I turned and gazed back out my window and then I heard a very soft ohhhhh. I turned and looked at the woman and I saw her hug her baby to her very closely and very intently.

Suddenly, I felt very close, very close and warm and a door appeared in the back of my mind. I opened it and light flooded in and I heard my father say, "Burrrr, burrrr, it's cold outside. You can put those logs right on the fire," and as I stepped in he shut the door behind me. I was standing in my living room, the Christmas tree was all lit up over by the front windows.

I heard laughter upstairs, my mother came through the swinging kitchen door carrying a plate of red and green frosted cookies and behind her came the smell of roasting turkey like a gauze that draped around my head, like the smell of earth that hangs out in the ocean and let's you know home is just over the horizon. Someone was stamping snow off their boots on the back porch and my little sister and two of her cousins were lying on their stomachs in front of the tree, starring at the presents like sharks at a man's legs under water, hoping to see beyond the tinsel and pretty paper.

I put the logs down and took off my gloves to warm my frozen fingers. In the dining room my grandma was scolding my grandpa about the best way for him to crack the walnuts that he was already cracking. He looked at me through the doorway and shrugged his shoulders and continued shelling the walnuts. I took off my thick coat and threw it on the floor by the door and went to stand by my aunt who had just called me to come sing the tenor part at the piano. There was talk and loud laughter coming out of the kitchen where the windows were steamed. We were singing, sometimes forgetting the second verses, but sounding pretty good.

But suddenly, somewhere in all the warm and familiar sounds, I heard someone very quietly crying. I looked around trying to locate the person and then my eyes landed on the young woman in the train a few seats away holding her baby. Her eyes with tears, hardly seeing the back of the seat in front of her. I got up and walked awkwardly up the aisle of the swaying car. I put my thick coat around her shoulders, then I sat down beside her. I held her hand in both of mine and we rode like that not looking at each other...looking straight ahead and I head her whisper under her breathe,"Merry Christmas."

The train slipped away across the sleeping land into the dark winter night.