The Collector

When I was ten years old, I woke up on a train. This was my first memory and I had no idea how or why I was there. I just remember opening my eyes at my surroundings. The first thing I saw was my reflection in the window. This girl with long chestnut hair, big bright blue eyes, fair creamy skin, and slender features who didn’t have a name was staring back at me. This is the first time I could feel fear well up inside me. Tears start to form in my eyes.

Suddenly a voice repeats itself in my head. “Be brave…be brave…be brave.”

I chose to listen to that voice. I face forward looking at the empty seat in front of me and brush my tears away. I patted down my body to see if I can find some kind of clue as to who I am and why I am here. I start with the outside pockets of my thick green woolen jacket by pulling them out. I found nothing but a single tissue paper. I press it to my nose and it has no scent to remove my memory block.

Frustrated, I throw it to the ground and continue to rummage through the pockets only to find nothing. I open my coat and see the clothes that I have no memory of even putting on that morning. Is it morning? I knew it was daylight but I was very unsure of the time. All I knew was that I was wearing this brown shirt with colorful pastel polka dots, some tan corduroy pants, and light pink running shoes with white socks. I had nothing to tell me who I was or why I was here.

Suddenly, I hear voices outside of my compartment. I stood up and looked out of the window above the door to see a man in a fancy uniform walking down the hallway. He was asking for the tickets of the group of people two compartments down from mine. My eyes go wide with panic and I crouch down on the seat. I climbed off the seat to find a place to hide. I darted my eyes in every direction and could not find a place even remotely good enough to be out of sight. The red leather seats with steel arm rests were attached to the wall and the bottom was open. Sadly, this was my only option.

I got on my hands and knees and crawled underneath the seat into a ball, hoping that the man would not see me. I heard him open my door and I could see his gleaming black shoes facing inside the room. It was silent for a moment that seemed longer until another man’s voice was shouting out.

“Henry! It’s happy hour! Let’s go!”

“Okay!” The worker in her room called and closed the door. She could hear him say. “No one’s in this one. Let’s go.”

Slowly, I crawled out from underneath the seat, when I realized I was all alone again. I let out a sigh of relief and stood up to look out the window of the door again. There were no people that I could see but I could hear this lively instrumental music coming from the giant room to the left of me.

Curious but careful, I opened the door and stepped out of the compartment. Looking both ways, I take a step and feel something beneath my foot before I could step on the ground. I looked down and see an old pocket watch underneath my foot. I crouched down and picked it up to study it. Even with my young mind, I knew that this little timepiece was going to come in handy. I slipped it into my jacket pocket and went on my way towards the room full of loud music.

The halls were long and tall but the width of this place seemed cramped even to me. On a lark, I spread my arms and legs out to see if I can touch each side of the hall. As it turns out I can. I let out a little giggle as I touched each wall with my fingertips. On the left of me were these wooden doors with bronze door handles while on the right there were these windows that were cracked open at the top.

I pressed my face against these windows to see how fast the train was going. I saw immensely giant mountains that reached past the clouds, a lake so blue that it was almost blinding to look at it, and the dark green pine trees zipped past with one blink of my lash. This was my first happy memory. I wanted to take it with me everywhere I go.

I walked away from the window and continued towards the room where I was hearing all that music. I pushed open the double doors and saw all these people in strange albeit formal clothes. The women wore shorter, calf-length dresses that sparkled in the light and matching hats on top of their bob-cut hairstyles while the men wore pinstriped suits, fancy ties, and had slicked-back hair or fedoras. No one seemed to notice me but I was in awe at them. They were all dancing, laughing and having a jolly old time. I shyly passed though the room, hoping to find a corner where I wouldn’t be noticed.

I stopped when I saw a man and a woman sitting on a red chaise couch laughing it up. He wrapped his hand around her waist and gave her a lusty drunken smile as she drank down her martini. With a scissor of her long legs, she drops the martini glass on the ground before wrapping her black-gloved arms around the man’s neck and presses her red-painted lips voraciously against his. My eyes go wide as I was watching what they were doing. It looked so gross the way they kept rubbing their tongues and opening their mouths on each other like that.

I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder and turned to see a heavy-set dark-skinned woman in a black and white tuxedo uniform, smiling down on me through her plump lips. “Hi honey. This is a private party. Let’s get you to where you need to go.”

She held out her hand to me and seeing that kindly, trustworthy face, I placed my palm delicately onto hers. She led me out of that room and into another room. It looked more like a classic diner with the circular tables, red leather booth chairs, and a long counter that housed a small display of baked goods. I found myself a little more comfortable seeing that the various other people in there were dressed a little more similar to me. It was also much quieter with the speakers on the ceilings playing some gentle rock music.

The woman brought me up to a long counter and picked me up to sit on a stool that is the same color as the booth chairs. At the same time, I saw her name tag and it said, “Sara.”

“There now.” She said gently to me as she sat me on the stool. “All set young lady?”

I gave a shy smile and nodded at her.

“You must be starving. What’s your name, Sweetie?”

“Sara.” I say quietly, not knowing what else to say.

“Like me?” She piped up cheerfully pointing a red-nailed finger to her chest. My only answer to her was a nod and she spoke to me again. “Cool! We Sara’s are taking over, right?”

She holds her palm up into the air and I recognized that she wanted me to give her a high-five. I let out a chuckle and with newfound confidence give her hand a happy slap. “Okay Sara, you just tell my friend at the counter here what you want to eat and she will take good care of you.”

Sara gave me another big grin and I found myself giving her a bigger one than I had initially as this woman made smiling contagious. I knew I had to be apart of that happy energy she gave off. I watched her walk away until she was back in the loud room that she had taken me out of. I spun around on my stool and looked to the friend that Sara had told me would look after me.

“Sara right?” She said looking at me as she was wiping down a mug with a clean white towel. “You hungry?”

“Yeah.”

“What would you like to eat?” She asked me plainly.

“I,” I trailed off with my eyes searching the counter for my answer. “I don’t know.”

“No worries. I’m very good at guessing what a customer needs. I’ll be right back.” She winked at me, put down the mug, and walked through the door behind the counter.

While I waited, I pulled out the pocket watch that I had found outside of my compartment. I turned it over, ran my fingers over it, and pondered it as if it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. I saw the writing on it. Back then I could not pronounce it but I memorized the letters on it. “T-H-A-L-L-O-X.” I remember thinking how cool those letters all looked together. It just appealed to me for no explicable reason. I don’t know why I was so drawn to it but in a few moments, I’m glad that I did pick it up when I did.

Sara’s friend returned back from the room carrying a hamburger with French fries and a strawberry milkshake. When she set it in front of me on the counter, I found myself in awe of the food. It smelled so good and the milkshake looked so pretty. I could not wait to try this. I picked up the burger and sunk my teeth into it, letting that mixture of sweet, savory, and fat dazzle my tastebuds. I fell in love with it immediately. Before I could take another bite of the best thing that I could ever remember tasting, the woman put a hand on my wrist to get my attention.

“Easy there, Tiger!” She said calmly. “You gotta pay for that you know.”

“Oh.” My heart sank into my stomach as I realized that I don’t have anything for her…except the pocket watch. So, I placed the watch into her expecting hand.

She looked at it for a moment and a smile appeared on her lightly freckled face. “Oh my god! Where did you find this? The conductor was looking everywhere for this.”

“On the floor.” I said simply.

“Wow!” She replied with surprise. “You are quite the little collector, you know that? You could make a good living doing that. Consider your tab paid my dear.”

The woman put the pocket watch into her apron’s pocket and walked away. Little did she know that her words had a profound effect on me. As I ate the rest of my delicious meal, I contemplated on what she said. I could get more of these delicious burgers if I find more things like that watch and give them to people. It was right then and there I found my life’s purpose.

I had only gotten half of my milkshake finished when the train shuddered violently. I had fallen off my stool and landed with a hard thud onto the ground. I looked up from the floor and found people were screaming with fear. Panic spread out of every passenger on the train. Not only did it continue to shake so that no one could stand up but the train seems to be going faster than it was before.

As people continued to scream, I crawled my way to the back of the counter and towards the kitchen. When I made my way through the kitchen, the workers paid no attention to me. They too were too terrified to notice a small child in an off-limits destination. While the staff huddled together crying and screaming in the corner, I continued to crawl towards another door I saw in the back. I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going. My only thoughts were to find a way to get out of here.

A loud beep sounds on the speakers overhead followed by a buzz and static sounds. “Good evening passengers we ask that you calmly retreat back to your cabins and remain enclosed until further notice.” The announcement said.

I could hear the other passengers fretting when the swinging door opened. I saw the train workers trying to gather everyone up and lead them out. Paying no other mind to them, I keep crawling to the door trying to find my own way out. After a lot of struggling on my little hands and knees I made my way through the back door and found myself in the storage area.

Boxes and crates of all kinds were up against the walls. Some were big and some were small. If it was a different situation, I would have climbed on them and found a way to see what was inside of them. Sadly, with the fierce rumbling of this train, I was in a lot of trouble. Suddenly a loud bang deafens my ears and I can feel myself lift off the ground as if gravity has just given up holding me down. It all seems to happen in slow motion as my legs fly up over my head and the crates slide away from the wall to land hard in the center of the room.

It was sheer dumb luck that not one of those crates landed on me. I just remember feeling the hard ground on my back and lifting myself to sit up. A single gold coin rolled out from one of the shattered crates and landed right next to my hand. Knowing that I would need that at some point, I pick it up and put it in my pocket.

I looked up when I saw a flashing red light blaring on the ceiling. Right next to it was a cord that has a sign under it saying, “In case of an emergency pull down.” Knowing that this is an emergency, I decided to climb awkwardly on top of the boxes in front of me. Carefully, I made my way closer and closer to the cord. I couldn’t quite reach it but thanks to a hard nudge from the train, I had fallen from the crate and managed to grab the cord, pulling it hard as I fell.

Once again, I landed on the ground but instead of recognizing whether or not I was hurt, I saw that there was a large red button that had the words, “STOP THE TRAIN” scrawled in white across it. I reach for the button and press it as hard as my little fingers would let me. As soon as I did, a loud metal screeching sound fills the air and I could feel the train slow down. It seemed to take forever to come to a complete stop but when it did everything came to a dead quiet.

Thinking that the terror has stopped, I looked around at all the wreckage on the floor thanks to these crates being destroyed. I wanted to find some more items that could get me more of the stuff that I needed. There didn’t seem to be that much, just some fabrics, metals, and funny little knick-knacks. However, my search did not come out useless. I managed to find a silver fork, a tiny diamond earring, and a tool knife set. All three of these items, I knew I was going to need. As I put all of these findings in my coat pocket, I hear a commotion coming outside of the room.

Quickly, I look for a place to hide. I decide to hide behind this long wooden crate that was still standing and as luck would have it, I found a blanket to cover myself with. A couple of men came in through the door and began to scope the place out.

“Look at this god damn mess!” The older man said waving his arms in anger.

“What do you expect?” The somewhat younger man chimed shrugging his shoulders. “We flew off the rails a couple of times. People went flying Marcus, remember? This is not exactly a shocker!”

“Well, I want to meet the genius who pulled the emergency cord and stopped the train.” Marcus spoke somewhat calmer and (looking back now when I didn’t realize it then) sarcastically.

“We all would be dead now if they didn’t.”

“I know Pete.” Marcus said in annoyance. He looked back at the destroyed room and shook his head. “Let’s clean this shit up tomorrow. I can’t deal with this and screaming passengers.”

With that, the two of them left the room and I came out of my hiding place. I stood there looking at the door and found myself feeling very proud. I saved a whole train of people. So, to my mind, that justifies me searching in this room a little more to find and keep any sellable items. I push back some wooden debris in front of me and began my search all over again.

A few hours later, everybody was outside of the train alive and unharmed. There were all these men and women in strange uniforms asking all the grown-ups questions. I managed to keep to myself and stay away from all these people but I still got to see the damage of the train. A whole passenger cart fell over and the sides of what was once a shiny and new turned into destroyed and dented. It was kind of sad to see.

Seeing that these inquiries and questions are just going to go on and on, I turned away from the train and walked towards a hill. I knew there was no reason for me to stick around so I wandered off. The hill was steep, it seemed more like a mountain than I had initially thought. It took me twenty minutes at least to get up this hill but when I made it, it was worth it.

Past these hilly fields full of dry grass and dirt, I see a huge city that shined in the sunset . I had the feeling in the deep reaches of my soul that this was where I needed to be. And this is how my destiny as a collector in the city of Rine came to be.