Train

One train passed by me, and then another..
the station was packed.. the huge crowd was waiting for the train which would carry them to their destinations ...
everyone had their own destination..

I had my own.. the smart-dressed business man had his own.. a group of giggly junior high school girls had theirs .. the teenager in trendy outfit playing with his mobile phone had his.. the middle-aged ladies each holding a bag with department store logo on it had their own...

I got on a “Limited Express” train along with the collapsing crowd.
The automatic door closed just behind me and the station seemed too far away now.

------------

.....It was dark in the room..I could see the light from the corridor of my apartment..
and there came a train blowing its whistle…
long, nostalgic whistle...

I looked at the ceiling fan quietly turning..
It seemed everywhere I went, there’s always train ..
I’ve learned to like the melancholy sound of a train at night and it normally brought back a lot of memories…

-------------

…the twinkling lights were here and there as we were approaching residential area…

I was only 10, holding my backpack and eating plums from a bag that my mother bought for me..
Under my feet was a lunch box .. that morning, my mother got up even before dawn to prepare it for me.
I was on my way back to Rangoon on a train after the summer vacation spent with my parents..
Alone…. Yes…. Alone by myself..

It was okay for me to travel alone.. I was not extra brave nor were my parents incautious.
It was okay then on condition that they knew the person who was sitting next to me..

Looking into the starless sky and darkness of the night, I immediately knew that the lights were from small huts or houses of the village ..
I felt very peaceful … the calmest moment, the happiest moment, the unflustered moment..

------------

Whenever I closed my eyes now, I could go back to that moment, remembering the night without stars, but the lights from the small village…
It felt like home..
…a lot like home…
The only thing was that I could never be 10 again…

------------

Excerpt: If you miss the train I'm on, You will know that I am gone. You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles, A hundred miles, two hundred miles, three hundred miles, four hundred miles, You can hear the whistle blow five hundred miles.

(from "Five Hundred Miles")

..