Acid Rain by R.D Rhodes (ebook reader txt) 📕

“THANK YOU.” Click.

He seemed to linger for a moment. I felt my heart sink. Then his voice moved ahead to the next table, “THANK YOU. THANK YOU.” It got more distant as he stepped through the doors into the carriage in front.

I was elated. It took all I could to suppress the smile that tried to spread itself across my lips.

Twenty minutes on and we had passed another two stations. I wanted to relax but couldn’t, I knew we weren’t out of the woods yet. I peered out through a chink in my right eye at Harry- out for the count, slumped over in his chair.

I was still leaning my face against the window. My eyes were still closed. The train seemed to pick up speed. It was getting uncomfy. I wished the woman sitting next to me would move so I could shuffle over a bit. I wished I had an iPod or mp3, to take my mind of the constant fear that at any moment I could be dragged off the train and found out for who I was. But we still had five hours to go.

The family at the table in front were shouting their conversation. I heard the woman on my right tutting and sighing and shuffling in her seat. The man was still yelling on his phone. I half-peered out through the hazy light of my right eye at the huge, open mouths that chewed up whatever it was they were eating. But despite all their racket, and the trio of woman’s voices now gabbing away somewhere on my right, I felt a real tiredness overcome me. The train was warm. The heaters seemed to be on full blast. And I slowly drifted off.

“OH AYE, DOING REAL WELL FOR HIMSEL. HE’S MAKING LOADS OF MONEY NOW.”

I grimaced and squinted open an eye. The family had gone, and the lady had vacated the seat next to me, but that trio of gabbing woman were still there. They sounded like they’d been drinking.

“Yeah, he’s top dog at his work. Just worked his way up and there he is. Going to China next week on a business trip as well.”

“Oh, wow! You must be so proud of him.”

“Yeah. I says to him, How about you and me swap jobs and you let me go to China for a week! HAHAHAHA!”

“And what about Joshua? Is he still at school?”

“Aye, he’s sixteen now, doing really good. Just passed all his exams and got three A’s. He’s really smart.”

“So is he going to go to uni, or?”

“Yeah, he’s applying next year. Doesn’t know what he wants to do yet but he’s thinking about chemistry.”

“Very good.”

 “See that Patricia Pounder? Shocking eh?”

“Oh aye! I heard about that, went off the rails and went off with Bob Pitt? That’s mad that is.”

“She’s a good actress though.”

 “I read in Heat she got three million for Confessions alone. Imagine that, eh? What would you do with that kind of money? Lucky girl.”

“I think I’d just fuck off and spend the rest of my life on a beach somewhere, soaking masel in the sun, HAHA.”

The others chimed in unison, “Aye! Aye! Aye! That’d be great.”

I closed my eye again. Even if I was a millionaire, I wouldn’t be paying the one hundred and fifty pound it is for a ticket on this train, I thought. I peered out to the left as the world passed by, trying to avoid the dim reflection that followed my every move. I couldn’t look at myself, but the outside made me sick too. All the primed fields and individual houses. It didn’t seem that there was a place in the world that man hadn’t ruined yet.

The ticket inspector hadn’t come back for a while. I had passed two of the obstacles. Soon enough I would get to the third- getting into Glasgow itself.

Chapter 31

T he three women got off at Newcastle. More people got on, but the carriage was now again half-empty. I pushed open my eyes a little more as the train coasted through the bleak and desolate hilly landscape of Northumbria. The sky was overcast and grey and the ground all around was a series of barren and treeless mounds of earth. The last stop had been twenty minutes before. We would soon be crossing the border.

I opened my eyes fully and looked from one side of the carriage to the other. I couldn’t see the train inspector, but I saw Harry, doubled up in his seat, his sleeping head on the armrest. I rose onto my knees. In the rows behind people were sitting quietly in their chairs, just minding their own business; flicking through magazines and papers, listening to music on their headphones, or just staring out the window.

It was getting dark. I yawned and rubbed my hands across my face and when I took them away, I was distracted by the sight of a man and what looked like his two daughters, sleeping at an opposite table. The young girls were lying on his lap in a peaceful repose, and were both so little. One was about seven and the other about three. The youngest one lay breathing softly, her little chest moving gently in and out with each breath. Her thumb was in her mouth and her cute, tiny face was turned up towards her father. The older little girl’s arm was positioned under her sister’s resting head, and they were both lying in their dad’s arms as if their whole being and trust had been placed in him. As if he was the center of their whole universe.

I felt tears well up in my eyes. And that man, their dad- he had his head tilted very awkwardly to the side, his shoulders were slumped,