Railway Station

It was about 9:30 in the evening that night and I was driving to the railway station to pick up a relative. The evening breeze felt good on my face and the slow gazaals on the radio added to the soothing effect. I parked my car and walked to the information board to find that the train was 30 minutes late. With not enough time to make a round trip back home, I decided to wait at the station itself.

I entered the platform and started to walk the whole length unconsciously humming the song that I heard on the radio a while back. While walking back, I saw a blue silhouette across the railway line. It was a pleasing shade of blue and I couldn’t help stealing a glance once a while. A fast local rushed thru the tracks between us not stopping at the platform and after the train passed by, I squinted again towards the place I saw the outline, but couldn’t see her.

My eyes went there a couple of times again but in vain and as she was starting to disappear from my mind, I heard a pleasant voice from behind me.

‘Excuse me’, I turned around to see an elegant woman in blue standing there.

‘Is she the same woman?’ I thought.

‘Ahem Ahem’, she cleared her throat conscious of the way I was looking at her.

‘Yes?’ I asked coming out of the trance. I felt my expressions deceiving me and revealing everything I was thinking at the moment.

‘May I stand with you for a moment; there are some guys over there that are troubling me. I’ll leave as soon as they go away. I hope you won’t mind.’

‘Not at all’, I said, hoping that the guys troubling her should never leave.

She just stood besides me but said nothing more. She just stared down the platform across the tracks. There was a cool breeze blowing and her flowing brown hairs were casting a spell on me. All I could do was stand there and admire her. Everything about her seemed to be perfect and I was wondering what she was doing here alone in the night.

‘Hi, I’m Saahil.’ I said trying to strike a conversation.

‘I’m Sonal.’ She replied not really interested in keeping the conversation going.

Maybe she’s scared of me too, I thought. I didn’t try to converse any further, but just stood at a distance stealing stares once a while. She wasn’t carrying any luggage and I wondered if she’d come here to pick someone up.

‘Waiting for someone?', I asked again, thinking I might miss the chance.

‘Yes’ she replied but didn’t elaborate.

What does she want? She seemed to behave in a very strange manner; I really couldn’t understand what was going thru her mind. Maybe she just wanted to feel safe and I was the only decent guy around(or so I thought).

Just as I was getting ready for the 3rd and final try to talk to her, she turned to me and after a moment gave me a smile. ‘Damn, this girl is going to get me crazy in no time.’ I thought. I opened my mouth to say something and I heard the voice.

‘Hi honey, where have you been? I’ve been searching for you all around.’

I couldn’t believe my ears, did I say that? But I saw her smile widen and thought maybe it’s a dream. I saw a man pass me from behind. He walked all the way to her and held her hand.

‘Lets go’, he said. ‘Its high time you get a mobile now.’ She just smiled back at him.

‘Thanks.’, she said turning back to me and just started to walk towards the exit. All I could manage was a smile as I saw her all the way to the exit, hoping against hope that she would turn back and give me one last glance.

‘ ....... is coming on platform number 1.’ blurted the platform speakers, jolting me back from the trance. The announcement was repeated, and it was the train I was waiting for. I glanced back again towards the exit wondering if it was my mind that was playing games or was she actually there.

And then I knew....