A Schedule to Keep

The steady sound of wheels on tracks sounded muffled--a bit distant--but steady. Elder Pendarian awoke slowly from what seemed to zim like a very long slumber.

I know what you are thinking, long like "10 or 12 hours?" A "day?"

No, Elder awoke very slowly from a slumber that felt like an eternity. The long sleep. Elder felt gray. Zis tongue felt like it was made of cotton. Zie might have been clothed in an inch of dust, the way Elder felt when zis mind had cleared just enough to care how zie felt. If there was dust on this train. There was not.

Elder looked around. Zie appeared to be on a train, but Elder did not remember boarding a train. Not in a very long time, anyway. The seat, the floor, the walls all had an ethereal quality to them. No shine. A hazy glow, really, if we are being honest. No dust. No litter.

No other passengers that Elder could see-that was odd. That was a small oddity in a sea of very odd things.

No other passengers?

Elder groaned as zie got up to look around. Zis shirt looked gray. Zis leggings looked gray. Elder's very shiny boots did not shine. The boots looked a bit gray, if we are being honest. The seat Elder just vacated had a grayish glow about it--as if zie had sat back down zie might go right through it to the steel gray floor. The floor was not shiny, but not smudged. A bit gray. Not a showy gray--more like a very slightly glowy gray.

Looking out the windows gave Elder no real answers either. The windows gave off a bluish glow--the landscape whizzing by outside looked like a desolate, reddish brown place. No structures. No trees. No people. No fields. No horses or cows. No fencing...

Elder shook zis head and looked away from the window. Zie looked down the aisle, past empty seats towards the back of the car. There was a curtain, slightly open as it swallowed the aisle. Elder walked slowly down the aisle toward the curtain.

Behind the curtain Elder found a door with a window. Looking out the window, glowing bluishly without apology, Elder could see another car--a long line of cars stretching as far back as zie could see. There was a handle on the door. Elder stared at the steel gray handle for what seemed like a very long time.

I am a very patient narrator--I don't mind waiting. Okay, at some point I may have cleared my throat. Ahem.

Elder eventually looked over zis shoulder along the aisle to the other end of the car. Another curtain. Elder pondered this odd place. This nowhere train.

Elder turned and walked back up the aisle. When zie reached the curtain, Elder pulled it back and found a door, with a window. The window glowed with a slight, blue hue and offered no apology. Elder expected none.

Out the window of the door at the front of the car Elder could see a long line of cars stretching towards what looked like an engine, just within sight. There was a handle on the door. Elder stared at this steel gray handle for what seemed like another very long time.

Elder pushed the handle down and opened the door. The wind fought zim and tried to close the door. Elder put zis shoulder against the door and cursed the wind. There was no one else to enjoy the colorful language being hurled at the wind. The wind simply stole Elder's curses and went on making it difficult for Elder to open the door.

Elder finally got the door open about halfway when the wind changed its mind and whipped the door open with a loud bang against the outside of the car. Elder cursed again, under zis breath, so the wind could not steal it.

Elder could see wooden slats forming a walkway over the imposing metal arms connecting the cars. The walkway looked uncertain about itself. Elder looked uncertainly at the wooden walkway. The wood was well worn, a bit gray. Quite smooth.

Elder gathered zimself, looked straight ahead, and walked across. Elder found a door with a window. Through the window zie could see a curtain, slightly open, and more empty seats along an aisle. There was no handle on the outside of this door. Zie looked back. The wind chose that moment to change its mind again, caught the door in a gust, and slammed it shut.

The door Elder had just exited was now closed. There was no handle on the outside of that door, either.

Elder looked around and saw a ladder built onto the outside wall of the car, next to the door. The ladder went up. Elder sighed, stepped off the walkway and onto the bottom rung of the ladder, and climbed up.

On top of the car looking forward, Elder could make out the engine in the front. Bluish-gray smoke belched from the stack. Beyond, Elder could just see more desolate, reddish brown landscape.

Might as well be on Mars... or in Utah. Elder chuckled to zimself.

Elder braced zimself against the fickle wind and walked slowly across the top of the car, towards the front of the train.

Elder reached the front of the car and found a ladder going down to another walkway over large, metal car connectors. There was another ladder going up to the top of the next car. Elder sighed, cursed under zis breath, and resigned zimself to zis fate.

After walking along the tops of several cars, and going up and down twice as many ladders, Elder could see the front of train more clearly. Far ahead of the train Elder could see that the landscape rose into what could pass for a very righteous mountain. The top of what might be a brownish red mountain was lost in a grayish blue mist.

Elder paused. The train did not slow. From atop the car Elder stared hard at the mountain growing closer. There was no tunnel. Elder started running toward the next car.

Elder quickly found that if zie leaped just at the end of each car off one foot, zie could just land on the next car with the other foot, and not break stride--if zie kept running, at speed.

Elder ran. Zie leaped. Zie kept running, car to car. Forward to the engine, and the mountain.

When Elder reached that last car before the engine, zie climbed down the ladder, walked across the gray wooden walkway, and onto a platform at the back of the engine. There were rails here. Elder could see that a narrow, metal walkway wound around past the cab entrance, around the front, and back to this platform.

The engine and its walkway were black. Elder walked to the cab entrance and peered into the cab. Black metal interior. There was no one in it. There was no place to sit. Elder stepped down into the cab, moved to the center of it, and looked forward. Through a window Elder could see the mountain in full view--starting to fill the window.

Elder looked over zis shoulder at the back of the cab. Zie could see a door with slats like a larger version of an old, cast-iron, cook stove. Elder could see the fiery glow of embers through the slats--and could feel the heat from the door. Smoke belched from the engine, above zim.

Elder turned back to the window to look out. Looking at the desolate, rocky, reddish brown mountainside through the bluishly glowing window made everything look just a bit grayer. Elder chewed zis lip.

The train kept moving at speed. The tracks ahead disappeared under the Very Big Mountain. There was no tunnel.

Just before the train ran out of track, Elder closed zis eyes. Elder slept while standing there inside the cab, on the train, inside the mountain. No tunnel.

Elder dreamed of a life well lived, and a mate zie shared it with. Elder dreamed of a comfortable home, painted in bright colors, near a shoreline. There was some green, beach grass near zis home. The sand dunes were, sandy, of course. The sky was blue, and the ocean a bit green with a few white caps here and there as the waves rolled gently into shore. Elder could smell the fresh sea air through the open door. Elder could see zis mate's red lips, as zie stood in the doorway of their home. Elder bent to kiss them…

I must report that when the ghostly gray train exited the other side of the mountain, finding purchase on tracks that grew out of the side of the mountain--in the same disturbing manner the tracks disappeared into the mountain on entrance--Elder was not aboard. No one was aboard this train. There was no tunnel on this side, either.

The trained raced on like it had a schedule to keep, away from the mountainside.

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