Almost Too Close A Call

It all began, full steam ahead, down a one way track, of which there will be no return.

It all began with the fatal diagnosis of my sister’s blinding headaches. The headaches we have been chasing answers for over six months. Now we have the diagnosis, I wonder if it wasn’t better when we didn’t know.

*****

It all began on a bright sunny morning. A morning of excitement, the arrival of dreams and blindingly intense pain.

Sunday, 15 May — the day we had been dreaming about for years. The day my sister, Angelika and I, were to board the old 1920’s steam ship for an all inclusive one week sail along the coast. A dream we have had for so long it’s hard to believe the day has finally arrived.

If only Angelika was not blinded by one of her nasty headaches. I did offer to cancel the trip but she refuses to hear if it.

“Chloe, what am I going to do if we cancel our dream? Sit around here in pain, schedule more useless tests or just give up — because that’s what it would come too,” Angelika explains. “We are helpless until we get the latest test results, so please Chloe, let’s go follow our dreams. Please!”

So here we are at the boarding platform, standing next to the majestic old lady that is going to be our home for the next week. I look at Angelika and see her smiling through her pain. Yes, I think we are doing the right thing.

Suddenly, it’s time to board and we climb the steps and dash down the centre isle, as if we were six years old. I could hear Angelika giggling behind me and it’s such a joyful sound. One that I have not heard for many months.

We are doing the right thing, I tell myself.

“Angelika, here’s our cabin and look, they’ve already loaded our bags and unpacked for us. Oh, don’t you feel like rich gentry,” I laugh gaily.

A whole week, just the two of us and this old girl. All the things dreams are made of.

*****

As I wake that first morning, I look out the cabin window in confusion. Whereby I should see the vast ocean, maybe a glimpse of coast land, I see instead land and planted fields, farm houses and animals.

How, when we boarded a steam ship for the start of our journey, have we woken up here. The noise tells me we are somehow on a train. An old 1920’s steam train to be exact.

How can that be?

“Angelika, wake up honey. I don’t understand but we are not on the ship anymore. We seem to be on a train instead. Do you know how that could be?” I ask her.

“Chloe that’s not possible. You must be mistaken. We don’t have train tickets so how could we have boarded a train. You must be dreaming,” Angelika said as she rolls back over, intending to go back to sleep.

However, I was not going to let her sleep. We need to work out what was going on. I entice Angelika out of bed so we could explore the train and hopefully work out how we come about being on board.

*****

As we begin exploring, we both become quickly enamoured and in awe of this old steam train we find ourselves on. We took that first day to explore, starting at one end of the three carriages and working our way to the front, which houses the steam engine.

We are the only guests on the train but travelling with us is a maid, that wonderful woman who will help us with every need; a chef, our own personal chef; and the train engineer, that one individual who holds our safety in his hands, as he runs this old girl entirely on his own.

We are left to our own devices when we are not in need of assistance or food and nowhere was off limits it seems.

The carriage at the very back, although not very big, houses the bathroom facilities and you’ll not find a more gracious setup, on any of the modern day trains, that are all the rage. This old girl was pure decadence.

The second last carriage consisted of our very own personal restaurant and the chef has his kitchen on this carriage also.

Lastly the first carriage, behind the old steam engine housing, is our extensive cabin, consisting of one room with separate beds and another room for lounging. There is every imaginable device, from a TV to a radio and record player, if we feel the need for music.

For one whole week, this is all ours, to enjoy, relax and spend quality time together — well that is hopefully still the plan. We may not know how we come to be aboard this old girl but we are determined to make the most of it all the same.

*****

Day two and three, we decide to unwind and go with the flow. We talk, we giggle, we reminisce and in between, Angelika rests in an effort to control her pain.

We spend hours sitting quietly, watching the countryside roll past. Towns we’d only ever heard stories about, wind blown fields of grain out in the rural areas and pine forests that traverse for miles. All as beautiful as mother nature intended.

We enjoy each other’s company at times and we branch off to different areas of the train when we crave solitude. Time to sit with our own thoughts or time to escape in the pages of a book, or, for Angelika anyway, to rest as the need arises.

The trip is even better than we dreamed of when we planned a cruise, so far anyway, that is until Angelika receives her diagnosis via a telephone call. A call that intrudes on our dream.

*****

It is day four of our adventure and we have just finished breakfast, when Angelika’s mobile phone drags us back into the real world. The world of pain and headaches; X-rays and MRI’s; doctors and specialists.

A world that with one call, punches the breathe from our chests, tears our hearts asunder and turns the sky upside down.

A world where atrophy of the brain is the future of my darling Angelika and there is nothing any medical professional can do to set our world right again.

Our world, as we know it, no longer exists. Instead, we had been throttled full forward into chaos. A chaos neither of us can discuss right now. We need to take the time to process.

After the call, Angelika looks me in the eye, not a tear in sight and whispers, “I’m going to die very soon and I don’t know what to do with this information. I’m going to head down to the bathroom carriage on my own and have a long hot bath. I need some time alone Chloe. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No Angelika, of course I don’t mind. Please take all the time you need. I’m going to head back to our cabin to try to rest and process this news myself. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“No Chloe, I’m not okay but I just need some time,” Angelika responds and with that she rushes out of the restaurant carriage.

*****

Back in our cabin, I sit staring out the window without seeing anything of the world. I am in shock. I’m going to lose my sister in a few short months and I don’t know how to live with this knowledge. How am I going to watch her suffer and die, I ask myself.

Hours seemingly pass, Angelika in her bath and me sitting silently staring out the window — not thinking, not seeing, just feeling total devastation. Lost to the luxury of the train, lost to our lifelong dreams and lost to the world flashing by.

It is at this time that I realise that the world is flashing by, in fact it is rushing past a lot faster than it has over the previous few days.

What is the sudden hurry? Should I be worried?

Well of course I’m worried, about this terrible news we received, but should I be worried about the speed in which we are being thrust through this universe. Should I be concerned for our safety?

I leave our cabin to head to the front of the train, to find and talk to the engineer about our speed. I am struggling to walk down the aisle safely as the train is swaying heavily on the tracks. We are going too fast. This cannot be good news.

Are we on a runaway train?

It takes considerable time to traverse the carriage, as I’m thrown off kilter a number of times. After picking myself up off the floor, I try again to get to the steam engine bay.

My determination wins and I’m finally walking through the door into the engineer’s department and I’m unable to take in the view.

Can this day get any worse?

Maybe that’s not a question I should pose to the universe at this stage, as I’m not sure I can handle what she’ll throw our way, if she feels challenged by my question.

*****

A stand frozen, trying to sort out what I’m seeing.

The train engineer is laying in the corner, unconscious, and bound by his hands and his feet.

Angelika, my soft hearted and compassionate sister, is hastily shovelling coal into the burner. The result of the furious work is the enormous amount of steam she is creating, hence the speed of the train.

“Angelika what are you doing? Can you please stop and talk me through this? You obviously have some sort of plan in mind. Please let me in on the deal,” I beg my sister.

She totally ignores me, except to pick up the pace ever more with her shovelling. At the moment she doesn’t look like my sister. She seems to have aged ten years and, well I’m sorry to say, she looks demented.

I keep talking but it seems she’s too far gone. She’s not hearing me and I’ve no idea what to do.

The train is no long hurtling into our future — no it seems to have grown wings and is flying to whatever future Angelika sees in her broken mind.

*****

It’s obvious I’m not going to get through to her by talking, so I sway my way across the carriage, towards her frantic movements. As I get close she turns around and faces me. Coal shovel held menacingly over my head in an obvious threat. I freeze.

“Angelika, honey what’s going on? What are you thinking?” I calmly ask.

I’m anything but calm inside but I don’t want to incite her anymore than she already is.

“I’m sorry Chloe, but I cannot live with the news we received today. I cannot bear to think of the pain, that’s only going to get worse, as I hover on my death bed. That’s not the way my life should end,” she throws the words at me.

“Sis, I can understand your fear, you’re in shock, but this is not the answer. If this train doesn’t slow down, you’re going to kill us all. I’m sure that’s not what you want,” I suggest softly.

I’m shocked at Angelika’s reaction, as she throws back her head and lets out an evil laugh.

“Oh Chloe, that’s exactly what I want. I cannot bear to imagine the pain and grief you will suffer once I’m gone. Come on Sis, this has to be the better option. Just think about it and you’ll see I’m right,” she irrationally shouts at me.

*****

I take the time to glance out of the window, stalling for time, when I notice far off into the distance we are soaring towards an open valley. A valley that holds an old broken bridge spanning the divide.

It’s when I realise we have sailed past the last stop of our journey. The town and train platform, where we had assumed we would turn around and begin the trek home.

We are flying so fast that we didn’t realise we had passed that stop and now we are running — or flying — along unmaintained train tracks and hurtling towards that old broken bridge.

The bridge that is in disrepair and will not hold the weight of this old girl. We really are going to die — my sister is determined to kill us all.

The diagnosis was too much for her to handle and she looks at me now, insanity blazing from her eyes.

She whirls around and continues shovelling coal into the large furnace, trying to coach out every last drop of speed she can.

*****

I’m lost with what to do. She’s really going to kill us all. Ideas begin running through my mind on how I can stop her but none of them are good enough to be successful.

We are going to die!

Then I see the door behind me slowly open and the chef is creeping through the door — is he our knight in shining armour?

But what exactly is he going to do that I couldn’t do. Does he have a plan?

I suddenly notice he’s holding an old cast iron frying pan in his hand — a frying pan, really? We need a gun or a taser if we are to survive — not a frying pan.

However, I watch in amazement as he rushes past me, frying pan held above his head, and as he nears Angelika’s back, where she’s busily shovelling, he brings the frying pan down upon her head. Hard enough to knock her out cold but gentle enough that he doesn’t kill her.

Angelika folds at the knees and collapses like a sack of potatoes, blood running down the side of her face. He bends down, scoops her into his arms and begins rushing for the door.

“Follow me quickly,” he yells as he rushes past me and through the carriage door.

As I follow I see him lay Angelika down on the floor and I notice that in all this rush, he is still holding that old fry pan.

He hurries back to collect the train engineer, who is still unconscious near the steam engine. The next I see of the chef is when he is laying the engineer besides Angelika.

*****

I rush to Angelika’s side as the chef flys past me once more, back towards the steam engine and I watch in sheer astonishment as he leans down between the two carriages and begins to bash the carriage link with that old cast iron frying pan.

I start to feel some hope, just as the link breaks. The steam engine is no longer attached to the carriage we are standing in. He has saved us all.

The engine will still crash and burn but the carriages are slowing down now they’re no longer shackled to the engine.

*****

After Angelika is checked out medically and receives a few stitches in her head wound, we are able to organise a ride home. We are both totally exhausted and in need of a good night’s sleep.

Angelika seems her normal self since regaining consciousness but we have not spoken about the ordeal. I’m happy to leave that until tomorrow, after some rest.

*****

I am still asleep the next morning when Angelika comes barreling into my room.

“Chloe, wake up, wake up, I’ve got the best news. Please Chloe, wake up,” Angelika is yelling at me.

“What’s going on Angelika?” I ask.

I’m worried she is relapsing to the same state she was in yesterday.

“The specialist just called. They made a mistake with my diagnosis. It seems they mixed up the test results. I’m not going to die after all — well I am but not in the next few months,” she excitedly tells me.

I look at her in shock and that’s when our close call yesterday really hits home. She could have killed us and it would all have been due to a terrible mistake!

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