Create with ME entry: The Station

The Station 

It had been an oppressively hot summer, which made the young man having to pick his brother up from the train station even more troublesome. Needless to mention that usually at this early hour on a Sunday he would normally be found deep in a depressive torpor. The station was a rural stop. Nothing more than a small office next to a concrete platform under a tin roof occupied with spiders.

The young man was sitting slouched against a pillar. He was in his early 20’s wearing a black t-shirt and jeans and grey canvas shoes with holes in the sides where his toes bent against the floor. He had the trademark pallid skin of a man with a serious deficiency of vitamin D. His short dark hair had little in way of style of poise. He was intensely focused at his phone scrolling through train timetables seeing if there had been any updates on his brother's arrival but the information remained unchanged reading due 06:45. The time now was 06:48.

Despite the heat, the sky was deeply overcast. The air had an electric feel. A thunderstorm was approaching. The last time he had seen his brother was over 2 years ago at their father's funeral, and even though it was neither siblings fault they had nevertheless lost touch. Now with the death of their mother, the young man felt a great desire for connection with the only real family he had left.

This realisation that he was close to spending life alone was something the young man could well have done without. He had always felt like he could look after himself in most situations but now looking out into a life without another soul for support frightened him, and he knew that this was his best chance of reforming the close bond he had with his brother growing up.

The train running late was worrying him now. As was the weather. He wondered if the train was travelling through the storm now, causing the lateness. He suddenly realised that he had no knowledge of how this specific meteorological phenomenon affected train times. Was it just wise to go slower, more cautiously through these conditions? Or would a thunderstrike warp the tracks causing a derailment? The young man could feel a tightness in his chest. Quickly he typed ‘Hey, you going to be long?’ into his phone to calm himself. It had not been received.

Oh god! Is this it? How long will I have to wait here until they tell me there's been an accident? I'm sure it's fine! But what if it’s not? Will I have to identify him? Will I have to call his wife? God my chest is tight! Am I sweating more than normal? Things aren't going to be the same from now on. I'll have to live with this. I should have offered to pick him up. What do I do?

06:51. A train hisses to a stop.

Gary Vincent Mead