The Cabin Car

Charlotte’s life had never been set on a specific trajectory - she was never the type of girl to barrel towards a specific point in time that would determine her future, as logical and factual as she thought herself to be – and most other’s knew her to be, she was quite lost, and never quite able to make sense of the pieces of her life; this was what Charlotte knew the day she found herself in a strange bed in evening dress. As she awoke, her most immediate thought was why she seemed to be moving.

Charlotte had never been a particularly forgetful girl, in fact, she had always remembered more than most. She could remember her life in her earliest years, when all others could see was the finest of outlines in the faintest of ink; it was therefore a fright to Charlotte when she woke-up in a what appeared to be a cabin car. The most immediate sensation that she could feel was that of a sharp object at her back; the second was that of opening her eyes and a rocking motion; she wasn’t entirely sure the nature of the movement, but she was sure she was on a locomotive. Charlotte reached at the umbrella that was stabbing at her back, threw it aside, and sat up. She immediately checked her frock coat for her tickets and was unable to produce any identification. Charlotte scrambled in her memory for her whereabouts, but she was unable to remember why she was here.

As Charlotte began to assess her situation, she realized that her initial assessment had been correct, she was in a train's cabin car, and completely alone. She stood up from the bed – that she had to admit, was not the most uncomfortable of accommodations in which she had ever been, however, she was unable to immediately recall any other accommodations to which she could compare. She realized at that moment that her lodgings appeared to be a normal bedroom: there was nightstand just next to the bed, with a lamp that jostle ever so slightly every few seconds, a phenomenon ascribable to the rail wheels on the tracks; the door across from her bed likely lead to a bathroom; and the seating chair on the right side of the room all appeared to be completely normal to a standard bedroom. As Charlotte stood from her bed, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was slightly askew, her face was otherwise normal, but tired, and her dress and frock were completely clean. She turned to the left, and as she peered out of the tiny window just above the nightstand, and saw what looked to be countryside - which appeared to be flying across the window - she could not fathom why in the world she found herself in this predicament, but knew her memory was blank.

“Lost”, Charlotte said aloud to herself, “And how?”, she added to the empty room with a deep breath in.

She knew the frock coat was not hers and knew that this just was a problem for her to solve. She couldn’t remember her life, but she knew this was right. She scrambled her brain for any explanation of her lost presence and came up with nothing. She turned away from the window toward the door opposite, knew that this was likely the exit from the cabin car, and walked towards it. She slid the door open slightly and peeked out the tiny opening. She saw a trolley cart with serving platters, and she immediately closed the door.

A minute went by when she heard a knock.

“Good morning,” she heard a young man’s voice say, “You requested a nine o’clock wake-up, Sir.”

Charlotte scrambled, unaware of why she was being called 'Sir'. She threw herself on the bed and did the only thing she could think to do - she covered her mouth with a pillow and with a muffled and low voice said, “Yes, thank you.”

“Yes, Sir,” The young man responded politely.

Charlotte climbed out of bed while searching the frock once again. Nothing. Charlotte knew, on this day, the second she stepped out of the train car, her life would change forever, and perhaps for the better, but she was not entirely sure why. Charlotte’s life had never had a specific trajectory, but for the first time in her life, perhaps, it was barreling down the countryside of an unknown world, and she was hopeful that maybe her lapse in memory was for the best, and that this was not just the start of a mystery that needed solving, but a great and grand adventure; and, for once in her life, she was not concerned that she didn’t remember.