She looked out of the window in the hopes of seeing her favorite station but the fog was so dense she could barely discern the shapes of her own breath released in the air. The doctors managed to pull out the liquids from her lungs and yet, every single breath felt as if a creature was hitting the drum from the inside of her chest. She got lucky though, unlike her roommate who a couple of hours before Tammy was released, transitioned into another realm.
It was a short train passing through the countryside and connecting a few smaller cities. The infrastructure in the region was quite bad and the train was the only option for people in the region to escape their ordinary lives for a few hours.
Tammy closed the window and rushed back into her cabin disregarding the two gentleman that were having an intense conversation in the corridor of the train. Upon entering she closed the door and sat down opening her bottle of water and taking a quick sip. She was alone in the cabin enjoying the quietness after six weeks of constant machine beeping, alarms going on and off all day long, and nurses rushing from one patient to another.
Breathing without a machine was pure freedom. Tammy’s lungs have recovered quite nicely and she could more or less go back to her previous life. But she had other plans that would give more meaning to her creative endeavors while catapulting her future into the unknown.
Facing death several days in a row triggered Tammy’s resilience factor beyond that which the human mind can comprehend. Since she’s never been the same. The pleasant side effects of those horrific hours included a heightened level of awareness, increased intuition and the willingness to squeeze every drop she could out of her remaining life.
The watch showed ten more minutes until the train reached its final destination. Tammy knew the moment she’d step out of the wagon her old friends waiting for her would do everything in their power to keep her in the familiar zone. That however, was the past and she would no longer settle for it, even if it meant packing her bags and leaving the place she loved and lived in her entire life.
She closed her eyes briefly hearing a couple of sentences from the conversation that was unfolding in the hallway before somebody knocked on her door. An elderly woman with a suitcase greeted her and sat down on what appeared to be a wooden bench.
“Pardon me, Madame, what is bothering you? ... If you don’t mind me asking.” said the elderly woman in a very soft and pleasant voice.
Tammy looked up and without overthinking the answer, she replied intuitively: “The time I wasted on people and experiences I didn’t care about.”
“Hmm … Do you see this old suitcase I’m carrying around?” the elderly lady went on to say after a brief pause. “It’s to remind me of the past I can’t change and the difficulties we all have letting go of stuff in our lives.”
She stood up elegantly and left. Tammy watched her leave the park before she heard a whistle. The train had arrived at the final station and passengers were kindly asked to disembark.
Nobody was waiting for Tammy although she sent out timely messages to her closest friends and relatives. She remembered the wise words of the elderly woman, picked up her suitcase and rushed to the counter inside the small building located at the end of the railroad track that was just about to close.
“Can you please give me a oneway ticket back to the city? I’d like to return with the same train if possible.”
Creative art by Daniela S.
