The ran-away time train.

The run-away time train.

With a gust of wind, I woke up on a train, I knew this wasn’t here when I had fallen asleep. I was clearly on a train but how and why was the question.

I looked around in a panic, my eyes wide with fear. To the left on me on the other side of the isle, there was a young lady looked to be in her early twenties, dressed in a blue pleated dress, with a high buttoned front, and ruffled sleeves. She wore long white gloves that fit so softly on her petite hands, tight ringlets tucked underneath her matching white lacey bonnet. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She looked at me in slight discomfort as I realized, I had gazed to long. Quickly I broke eye contact and looked further around the train.

As I looked up the train carriage, though I and momentarily lost my panic and thought process it was all becoming more mysterious to me. Looking up to see a man in a very formal looking attire, but it didn’t seem to be from anywhere in this time. I was born in 1994, I am 24 years old- for me it was the year 2018. It didn’t make sense to me that everyone seemed to be dressed in a time from the 1800’s. not only that but the train looked old- but not old as in “old and rusty”- It looked brand new but also like it was something that walked straight out of the 1800’s section at the history museum. What in the hell was going on, was I dreaming? This was the most vivid realistic dream I had ever had. The carriage was covered in a rich red velvet and the chairs were green with black studs holding it all in place. I checked my pockets to see if I had a ticket with me. No luck.

Something wasn’t right. I pinched myself and closed my eyes tight. I opened them again to find people staring at me. They looked confused and it hit me that I was 24-year women wearing modern clothing from the year 2018. I got up feeling dazed and started to walk down the aisle of the train. The girl from earlier looked at me confused but didn’t say anything as I walked past. I had to find out where we were going and what was going on. Who was I going to ask without sounding like a complete maniac? Maybe I could start with asking the conductor where the train is going without sounding to odd, but I wasn’t going to get away with that while I was dressed like this. I go to the end of the first carriage It was windy and unstable crossing from one carriage to the other, but it was achieved without too much struggle in one large jump across.

As I walked into the new carriage I was hit with the smell of tobacco and bourbon. Smoke filled the air and a couple of men looked me up and down in confusion and disgust. They obviously were confused in the way I was presented Jeans and t-shirt had not been invented yet and especially for a woman in 1880. One man with black hair and a fancy suit made a comment, his mate gave him a wack on the back where he fell backwards into the chair. He looked down at his brown trousers and mumbled to himself. It was going to be one of those days. This guy had NO IDEA I thought to myself, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out what else they had to say. I knew back home I would have been filled with rage and stood up for myself but here in this time I had to stand back it literally wasn’t the time, nor place to be fighting for equality. Fear filled my veins, taking a deep breath I pressed on quickly to get to the next carriage. I wasn’t looing back. I knew I had to find out what was happening and where I was so I could figure out how to get home.

As I grabbed onto the door handle into the next carriage, a young-looking man wearing a blue ruffled suit tried to shuffle past me, he said in a heightened voice- “You’re not meant to be here yet!” I looked at him in amazement that he spoke to me and, he KNEW who I was? Who was this kid? He appeared to be in his late teens. This boy couldn’t have been older than 19. He was handsome, hair styled neatly, dressed well. I stared at him in disbelief for a minute I was unable to speak until eventually I muted the words “what is happening? Why am I here?” he simply rolled his eyes and said they were not meant to send you yet!

My mind was spinning in circles of confusion as I tried to ask more questions, he was walking away. He spun around with harsh eyes as he told me to shh that I was drawing attention to both of us. I didn’t understand, how could this boy be the only person that knew what was happening and he didn’t have the time to talk to me. He huffed and said “oh for goodness’ sake lassie, come with me, you’re going to get us killed” he pushed me along the carriages until we came to a new carriage with different sections. He pushed me hardly into one of the rooms, it had a large bed with deep purple heavy blankets and big squishy pillows, big chests at the end of the bed and large windows with a view into the fast moving outside world. He started rummaging through one of the big chests without saying a word to me. What are you doing, I asked?

He responded, how far do you think you’re going to get wearing that conspicuous outfit, without being noticed? I looked down at my jeans and shirt, he had a point. As he pulled out a massive dress followed by a corset. Looking me up and down he shook his head and said it’s just going to have to do. I just stood there staring. Surly he doesn’t expect me to get into that on my own in this ridiculous situation. He lowered his voice to say, “You really don’t understand what’s going on, do you?”

I could feel the tears well up in my eyes and I looked down at the ground. All I could think about was the safety of home. His eyes softened as he spoke. He said you’re from the future, you’ve been sent on a mission to help stop the train crashing into oblivion. You’re on something called a time warp. This mission must be successful otherwise it will change the version of events that will impact human civilization for hundreds of years and the universe will be in ruins.

I started at him blankly “Then how come I can’t recall any of this?”

He explained that memory loss is just part of time travel, otherwise if we remember everything it would be easier for people to stop us. He then turned back around and said we must move or they’re going to stop us, and the universe will be destroyed.

How do we save the universe and human civilization? We must stop the train!

I could feel that the train was going faster than it was when I first woke on the train, only an hour before. That’s odd I thought to myself. I looked at the boy “What’s your name?” Henry, he said. Amelia, I responded- I know your name Amelia, but we don’t have time for pleasantries, get dressed now.

I looked down at the pile of clothing Henry had left on the floor. I didn’t know how I was going to get into them. I mattered that I was going to need help getting the corset on. Henry’s eyes widened, and he looked uncomfortable, but he knew I was right. He nodded and didn’t take his eyes off me. I lifted my finger and twirled it gesturing for Henry turn around. He quickly snapped out of his gaze and spun around. I was nervous and didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew that we had to act quickly. I lifted my shirt above my head and dropped it on the bed, leaving my lacey pink bra and jeans still on my body. I turned slightly to look at Henry to make sure he wasn’t peeking. Getting undressed while another person you didn’t know was in the room was enough to get the heart bumping, that was for sure. Henry being polite for the first time on this day was keeping his eyes hard on the back wall. I put my hands behind my back and unclasped my bra, quickly holding my breasts in my hands to keep my privacy, while grabbing the corset off the ground with the other hand. I placed the corset across the front of my chest and body then quietly spoke “I’m ready”. Henry slowly turned around, he looked fearful to touch the corset as he looked at my exposed back and shoulders. He stood behind me and I felt his warm breath on my neck as he moved my hair. He looked down I felt him grab the strings and start threading them through the back of the corset. He was considerably gentle as he started to tighten the corset. He pulled hard I took a big gulp of air as I struggled to breath with my stomach being pulled in. Is that okay he spoke? Yes, that’s okay. Henry took one last glance before turning around to give me seclusion to finish getting dressed.

I looked down at the dress on the floor, it was beautiful, far from my usual choice of clothing and exceptionally fancy. I didn’t even know who it belonged to, but I was happy to borrow it for a few hours to achieve this so-called mission. Though Henry had been short tempered with me at first, he seemed to be a gentleman and I was happy to have someone with me that knew what was going on. I picked up the dress and stepped inside. Once again Henry did up the lace back. He had a quick look through the chest and found a matching bonnet with a beautiful feather attached. As I put it on Henry has a slight shy smile, that’s better at least now you’ll blend in. Okay Amelia’ it’s time to go.

I looked at him in excitement, what are we going to do now? He looked over his shoulder, “we’re stopping this dam train”. My eyes widened; but how?

Henry runs ahead and said we’ll start with the driver, surely, we can talk him into stopping. I wasn’t convinced but thought id go along with the idea. Just as I went to follow Henry a man dressed in black jumped down from the ceiling, he kicked me hard in the chest. I flew through the air and landed on the floor about two meters away from where I was previously standing. Looking up in absolute shock with pain shuttering through my body. I looked past the man dressed in black to see Henry fighting a second man. He was fighting with self-assertive skills; he knew what he was doing. Before I could think another thought I felt the pain of another kick across my check I felt my teeth chattering together and my face was burning. I could feel the adrenaline rising, I held my cheek, my body sprang into action. Starting with a kip jump straight from the ground onto my feet. I couldn’t believe what I was doing as I started blocking the punches and kicks being blown my way. I was fighting like a professional, but this wasn’t something I was aware I could do. We fought up and down the train carriage until we eventually ended up on the outside of the carriage, I was blocking punches left, right and centre. Not only was I fighting like I knew what I was doing, while in pain and in this ridiculous dress, but I was winning. Eventually I gave a big enough kick that the man that I was fighting flew off the side of the train. I didn’t see what happened to him next, but he was gone.

I knew I had to find Henry. We had somehow lost each other during the fight. Frantically I started looking through the next carriage. It didn’t take long to find him, still fighting. He looked at me and said I will hold him off you need to complete the mission, Amelia. Go now.

I pushed on, knowing the course of history and the pattern of the universe was relying solely on me. Finally, I arrived at the first carriage instantly I knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as I first thought. The guy driving the train was huge. He was a very broad man, large shoulders, tall, dark moustache, and thin black hair. If a look in a person’s eyes could kill, I’d already to dead. He spoke in a deep voice “There’s no way you’re stopping this train”. I looked him straight in the eye “There’s no way you’re stopping me” was my reply.

I knew even with my fighting skills that there was no way I was going to win this fight. His brute strength was going to be enough to kill me if I made one wrong move. I looked over at the steering wheel and the breaks for the train, my eyes hardened. This huge beast lunged forward towards me. I was taken aback and tried to move but he was fast to. I felt like I was in a bad movie that I couldn’t escape from. I tried to get away, but he was to strong and fast. He laid his fist into my already bruised face. My whole body felt numb, my vision slowly blurred when started to come back, I was sure he was just about to finish me off when over his shoulder I seen Henry. Henry come hard and fast as he finished him off, I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see but I could hear everything. When I opened them again Henry was standing over me smiling, holding his hand out. He helped me stagger to my feet and said were still not finished yet.

We walked over to the train breaks, and I asked Henry what is going to happen to us once it’s done. He looked down and quietly said “I’m not sure”.

Henry gave me a tight embrace and said softly, let’s do it together. Henry put his hand over mine and together we pulled the break down. When suddenly, I woke up, in a daze, I was in my bed. I looked around at my room with my large fluffy cushions, extra warm thick blankets. My dog Shay jumped into the bed and licked my face.

Was it really all a dream? Was Henry real. I had no real answers, but my heart told me the truth. I had traveled though time to the year 1880 and helped save the universe and met a beautiful boy Henry along the way.