Wish Train
Part I
Fiction.
Evan wakes up to a loud whistle and the rumble of a diesel train. He turns to see 3:04 on the digital clock next to the bed. It takes him some time to realize where he is. Finally, he remembers checking into a motel late last night.
“Right. We had our company's annual party last night.”
Then the night unfolds in his mind. He arrived a few minutes before 8PM. As he entered the lounge, he heard whispers and stares from other employees. He sat alone in a corner booth and drank too much beer. Then, as always, he stumbled from the bar to a cab. Alone, of course, as he hasn’t been with anyone since his last relationship ten years ago.
Now awake, he hears the hissing and the squeal of metal on metal as a train comes to a stop somewhere nearby.
He gets up and goes to the window. When he opens the curtain, he gets blinded by the intense light shining through the window from the parking lot. He looks away for a moment to let his eyes adjust.
Confused, he steps to the room door and opens it. The cool night air chills his bare feet. He shades his eyes with his hand and looks toward the light. This time he sees it is from the headlight of a train engine.
He has no recollection of a railway track when he got out of the taxi the night before…
