Destination or Delay? (Part 2)

The train moved away slowly, growing smaller until it disappeared. David stayed on the platform and watched the empty tracks. The air felt cool and still. He felt exposed, unsure without the train beneath him. He panicked. What had he done? He got of the train just because a stranger told him to.

All these rushing thoughts came to David, as he became aware of himself and thought up. No, he had made the right decision. For years, he had run away from all of his problems, he swiped them under the rug, it was finally the time to be a man and face the hard path and suffer the consequences.

The station was quiet. A bench stood near the wall. A clock ticked above the door. No one paid attention to him. No one asked him to hurry. After a significant amount of time, David picked up his suitcase.

Beyond the station was a small town. He knew it well. The streets used to be narrow and familiar at the time. So, there were the houses which once he knew every little inch of. However, as he stepped in, everything seemed wrong and unsettling. David shook off the concerns.

“It must be the time, I mean he was away for a long time,” he thought as he began to walk to that particular house.

Each step felt slow but steady. He remembered small things as he moved forward. He had run from those memories. He had hoped distance would erase them. However, now he felt a peculiar nostalgia as he thought about these memories

At the corner of the street, he paused. The blue house stood ahead, just as he remembered. As much as the little town had changed, the house remained the same, untouched. The garden looked a little wild. The gate still leaned to one side.

He stopped in front of it. He could still turn around. Another train would come. Another town would welcome a stranger. It would be easy to leave again. He stood there and just accepted the silence as his mind ran over all the possible outcomes of this interaction.

Finally, David opened the gate and walked to the door. His heart beat fast, but his hands were calm. He knew this step mattered more than any mile he had travelled.

He knocked. Footsteps moved inside the house. David took a deep breath. This time, he was not running.

Márton Balázs   X. R