~~~~
She arrived on the 12 o'clock train
heading south. Nothing in her hands except a suitcase and handbag
with gloves sticking out as if wanting to see where they were going.
She had her hair in a bun, her body in a casual black dress, and her
feet in tan high-heeled shoes which clomped as she walked across the
train station.
The train soon tooted its horn,
blasting all human ears by echoing through the long, low station, and
departed, filling half the room with smoke and dust that sat in the
air with no place to go. Everyone hurried away as the humid heat
rose in the building. Sweat was easy to come by and everybody got
his fair share of it. She was no exception. Sweat trickled down the
back of her neck. She refused to let
it bother her and walked forward, in the direction the train had
left. She was heading straight for the unsettled dust.
As I observed her walk and attitude
towards life—or what life of hers I saw—she seemed not to mind
the little cloud of unwelcomed dust before her. I could only wonder
what her story was. Maybe she came from a broken home. Her parents
might have disowned her for some mystery of a reason. Or maybe she
had just lost a very dear friend and had come to live with some
family member who was old and lonely. She might have lost a lover in
the war and couldn't stand her home town without him. She could be
in search of a husband and family of her own. Could she be a
traveling lady just out for an adventure to this new state. Would
she find what she was looking for? Would she find out her new quest
was to figure out the deepest secret of the town? Maybe she was a
detective; she did act as if she knew where she was going.
I sat there in pure suspense and kept
my mind spinning with ideas about the lady's reason for arriving here
in my home town. For my town is nothing like the big cities or small
country towns. My town is between. People don't like to stay very
long, or if possible, they won't stay at all. It's the town in which
the townspeople know who all is a friend and who will make fun of
their home.
My eyes returned from dream land of
making up stories about the lady and I found her to be reaching the
dust at last. I got one good look before she was lost in the
envelope of smoke and dust combined. I suppose I'll never find out
what became of the lady. I have yet to see her walk the sidewalks of
our town or have dinner at the only café in town, and a girl's got to
eat you know. My guess is that the little lady in the station is
long gone and was just a passer-through, not a true friend, for like
they say, only true friends stay in this town.
~~~~
Tune in next week for the woman's point of view. : )
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