Lucid Waking

Archive for June 12th, 2007

Train of Thought (Part 3)

            The second train pulled up with a laugh of satisfaction. Fell into the trap didn’t you, it seemed to ask as Alex and Chris dutifully walked inside the open car. The car was clean and smelled slightly of lemons and lilacs. There was a table on one end of the car with a glass case of whiskey and a teapot with two cups. The two men exchanged a look at sat down on the leather bound seats.
            “I’m sorry; I didn’t expect the extra visitor,” Persephone said walking from the opposite end of the car to the table with the whiskey and tea. “Would you like anything to drink?”
            “No thank you,” Alex said. He was focusing all his energy on staying calm and making his hands not shake that he missed that she had poured him a drink anyway.
            “It might calm your nerves,” she said handing him a glass of whiskey and sitting next to Chris. “Besides you’re going to be here a while.”
            Alex set down his glass and leaned back in the seat. The train lurched forward and sped off. Through silence, the train pulled up out of the subway station and into a countryside in the middle of the afternoon. Alex continued to watch the countryside before asking: “Why did you need people to go into the second train?”
            Persephone took a sip. “Well, quite frankly, I was bored.”
            “What?” Chris jumped up and hit the glass out of Persephone’s hands, spilling the liquid everywhere. “You brought us to this hell hole just because you were bored? People were killed on that first train—my sister was killed. And you murdered these people because you were bored?”
            “The purpose of a game,” Persephone said in a tone that forced Chris to sit down, “is to have fun. You propose the game for entertainment; it’s not anybody’s fault it gets out of hand.”
            “But that’s when you stop it,” Alex said calmly.
            “Why stop it when you’re so close to winning? I realized later that it was a good thing the boy was so stubborn to leave. I used him to keep you there. Why do you think I let him leave that message in your apartment? I even told the boy where it was. I knew you would get through the first game—you’re a writer after all. It was a gamble when the kid figured out the second part, but for some reason you decided to stay.”
            “What about the other children?”
            “They weren’t real,” she said pouring out another glass of whiskey.
            The two men shared a glance before she turned around and went back to her seat. “So, a game of cards?”
            Chris started to decline, but Alex quieted him with a quick glance. “Of course. Gin Rummy?”
            Persephone pulled out a deck of cards and shuffled them nonchalantly. “I haven’t played Gin in a long time.” After dealing the cards, she snapped her fingers twice and put the deck in the center of the appearing table. As she reached for the first card, Alex stopped her.
            “Let’s up the stakes,” he said.
            She put the card down amusedly puzzled and rested her chin on her fist. “What did you have in mind?”
            “Let’s gamble.”
            “Gamble?” she said laughing, “What do you possibly have to gamble?”
            “Right now, we’ve got nothing but time. We’ll play seven hands and on each hand lies a day of the week. If I win, Chris and I get to leave the train on our designated day. If you win, we stay.”
            She gracefully grabbed all of their cards and reshuffled the deck. “Fine,” she said dealing the cards to just herself and Alex. “But I’m a horrible cheat.”
            “Its hard to cheat a game that requires mostly luck,” Chris said, disdainfully.
            “It all depends on the deck.”
            She flipped the first card over and rearranged the cards in her hand. “This one’s for Sunday.”
            They played the hand until Alex put down the last card. “Beginners luck,” she said, but shuffled the cards again.
            The second hand went the same way and so did the third. Persephone was getting more and more angry with every hand she lost. By Wednesday’s hand, she had switched to another deck and for Friday, she insisted that they use her tarot card deck without the major arcana and knights.
            He put down his last card on the deck and sat back in the seat, trying not to look too content. She threw down the cards on the table and got up towards the whiskey and tea. “One more hand and if I don’t win, I’m not honoring the bet.”
            Alex waved her back to her seat. “Gambling is always luck.”
            “You’re only laughing because you’re winning.”
            “No,” Alex said, “if I lost I would give you what you won.”
            “We’ll see about that.” She dealt the cards again and flipped over the first one: the page of swords. Alex picked up the card and discarded the nine of wands.
            “For every day that you have to leave,” she said farther into the game, “you have to have your mind erased so you don’t tell anyone about this place. I can’t have people just joining the train ride without proper testing first. Where would the fun be if I did?”
            “So then I’d have to go through the test every time?”
            “No,” she said placing her penultimate card on the discard deck. “Every Saturday, I’d restore your memory of what happened. It would serve as a reminder as well.”
            Alex picked up two more cards and put the six of swords down on the deck. She finished her hand with a flourish of the six of wands. “Saturdays you are mine.”
            “All right,” Alex said, “You won Saturdays. What day is it anyway?”
            Persephone laughed. “Tuesday.” At that word, the train pulled up to the original station with a screech. Have fun! it said teasingly as Alex and Chris got off and cackled off into the distance.
            The light was starting to trickle in from the stairs and the cool misty air of morning was barely penetrating the musty station. Chris ran towards the stairs and disappeared, but Alex followed more slowly, savoring the well-earned week in his hometown. The stores hadn’t even woken up and the sun was just barely visible above the buildings. Alex sighed and walked over to where Chris was starting to climb a tree..
            “Come on,” he motioned to Chris to follow him and they both walked back to Alex’s apartment. “You’d better get washed up and then we’re taking you to school.”
            “I don’t think it matters,” Chris said taking the towels Alex handed him and walking towards the bathroom, “I haven’t been in the longest time.”
            “We can at least bring you home. Where do your parents live?”
            “Brooklyn. But don’t worry about them.”
            “Why not? I’m sure your mother will be worried sick.”
            “Well seeing as I used to have a sister…how do I explain that?”
            Alex bit his lip. Damn, I forgot about that, he thought, but he said: “I’ll come up with something.”
            The more he thought about it, the worse the situation became. He had come to the fact that he had to return Chris home. His parents would probably be grateful for at least their son. But it’s difficult to explain how their daughter died and why their son has to go into the city every Saturday without coming across as a dangerous lunatic. Even if Chris matched his story, his parents wouldn’t believe them. He had to come up with a plausible lie, which was the biggest problem. Nothing that had happened could be even remotely explained by reality and Alex couldn’t even remember what had really occurred.
            The bathroom door opened and steam rolled out. “Maybe I should go alone,” Chris said placing the towels in the laundry basket by the door. “Then I could just say I got lost from my sister and after trying to look for her, just went home. I don’t really know why I was there and it seems like a plausible explanation.”
            “I’ll go with you,” Alex said, putting on a coat, “but if you prefer, I won’t go up to the house. I just don’t want to leave you on your own.”
            Chris nodded and walked towards the door. “I guess we should go now,” he said. Alex locked the door behind them and they both walked down the stairs and to the metro station. The train was perfectly on time and as always, Alex took the fourth car from the driver. The ride was a normal rickety stop-and-go trip through New York’s gray jungle of steel. The buildings faded off into normal small housing of New York City’s factory cousin: Brooklyn. Chris had fallen asleep by the time the train pulled up to the appropriate station and Alex gently woke him up before helping his sleepy companion down to a taxi. The car drove them past several parks to the address Chris had given him and pulled up in front of a medium sized white house. The roof and garden in front of it was well cared for, but there was a police car in the driveway and an officer talking to someone at the door.
            “Thanks,” Chris said getting out of the back, “you can come in if you want.”
            Alex smiled and got out of the back of the taxi. He paid the driver and went towards the door. When Alex got to the porch, a somewhat short woman with shoulder-length red hair was crying and holding Chris tightly.
            “Thank you very much,” the woman said as she hustled Chris into the house. Alex nodded and wished the woman a pleasant day. She returned the greeting, but turned to the police officer again.
            “My daughter is still missing,” she said. But that was the last thing Alex heard as he walked away towards the metro station.

            Alex checked his watch again before looking towards the steps. Finally he could hear a teenager’s clunky footsteps down the stairs. The boy didn’t say anything, but just sat down on the bench expectantly.
            “How was the funeral?”
            Chris shrugged. “Lots of crying.”
            Alex nodded. “There would be.”
            The train pulled up to the station with a normal squeal and opened up its doors with the usual rattle. Alex stepped in first and took a seat on one closest to a window. Chris followed him but went straight to the refreshment table.
            “Tea?” he asked, pouring himself a cup.
            “No, thanks,” Alex said laughing. The train started forward and soon went up into a perfectly lovely sunrise over farmland. Persephone brought out her cards, but she and Chris started playing without Alex. He continued watching the purple and pink watercolor sky slowly fade to a crystalline blue. The birds were waking up in the tall grass and trees beyond the cornfields. A few little robins dotted the cloudless sky, diving for insects among the crops. At least, they were pleasant Saturdays. Even if he couldn’t remember them.