THE JOURNEY
By Jimmy Brook
A trip on this train is very unexpected. Especially for some of the passengers. The journey may still be continuing.
Chapter One
Benny was a little annoyed. He had hoped to get away from the office on time tonight, as his wife, Beth, was cooking a beef Wellington, and the game from last Sunday, which he had missed, was being replayed on the TV. His supervisor had other ideas. A layout for a client needed to be finalised by 9.00am the next day, and Benny knew he needed another hour on it.
He rang his wife, explained the situation, and said he would catch the 6.30 commuter train. She was not enthused by the change but would delay the meal. He worked feverishly and in just one hour, had the job complete and on his supervisor’s desk. He hurriedly grabbed his coat and headed for the station.
He made it with a few minutes to spare and took a seat in the centre carriage. It was only a three car set, and very few people seemed to be joining this trip. In fact, only four other seats were taken up in the centre carriage. His stop was the second on the schedule and would take about 30 minutes. Some how the rocking and clacking of the wheels, did its magic, and he started to doze off, only to be gently shaken out of his sleep when the train slowed then stopped.
He though initially it was the intermediate stop, but when he looked, it didn’t.
seem recognisable straight off. There were a lot of people milling about on the platform, but they just seemed to be standing and staring at the train. No one was coming forward to board, and he couldn’t see any one apparently leaving either. Oh well, he thought. I’m too tired to worry about an obscure observation. Then he sat up straight. It was then that he noticed the people were all dressed in odd clothes. Well, not really odd but more old. Clothes he knew his parents used to wear when they were young. Very 1940s or 1950s. That’s it. He relaxed. They were making a movie, he thought. It was now dark and he couldn’t see much either side of the immediate area in front of his carriage. He turned his head to look at his fellow travellers and noticed three of them just looking out the windows. He heard one man say to his female companion that it looked like some film set.
He looked for a name board on the platform and vaguely saw something on a seat back rest, but it didn’t register, as his glimpse was too quick, due to a man walking along in front of it. It got the better of him in the end, and getting up, he went to the sliding door at the end of the carriage, that separated the passenger seats from the toilets and outside doors. It would not move. He tried two or three times, but with no luck. A hand came over his shoulder and he stepped aside as one of the other passengers had a go. No movement. “Seems to be stuck,” he said and with a shrug, went back to his seat.
Benny looked at the other end of the carriage and that was when he noticed that there were no lights through the glass doors into the rear carriage. It was just blackness. He was sure he had noticed the lights when he boarded. He turned again to face his offending door, and that was when his heart missed a beat. There were no lights in the leading car either. He felt empty and blamed it on working too hard. Returning to his seat, he glanced outside and then felt the train start to move forward. Past the platform there were no lights. No street or house lights. This is too odd, he thought. Just shut my eyes and it will be all normal. “No, Don’t shut my eyes,” he said aloud, then looked at the people behind him. The couple just looked up and then then turned back to window gazing.
He looked out, and saw house lights and some cars on a road. “I hope that is a good sign,” he said aloud, and just sat there. Suddenly he recognised the hardware and building complex at the end of his suburb and then they were pulling into his station. Yes, he thought, definitely my stop, as he saw a sign to confirm it. Then he looked both to his left and right as he stood up, and saw that the lights of both adjoining carriages were alight, and the shapes of people standing. He walked quickly to the sliding door and it opened easily. He released the outside door and jumped out. He felt relieved and, and as he drove home, thought it had to be a dream.
He told Beth, who agreed he was working too hard and should change jobs. A cold beer and the sight of the dinner, pushed the strange dream away. As he lay in bed that night, weary and exhausted, the events of the journey home came back to him. He wished it would just go away, but it didn’t. Next morning he discussed it with Beth, and she suggested, trying to be helpful, to perhaps put a notice on the platform. They had a community board at the entrance. If anyone saw the same thing, he just might get a reply. She doubted anybody would, and hoped it would all be forgotten by day’s end.
CHAPTER TWO
Two days later, Benny and Beth spent the day in the city. He was working until about 4pm and she had shopping and catching up with her mother. They agreed to have a light evening meal and then catch the 6.30 back to home. That fateful train, he thought. Hope it doesn’t happen again. At lunch, his mobile phone rang and it was not a number he or it recognised. “Hello,” said Benny. It was a man who said his name was Tom and he had seen the notice on the platform. Yes, he did remember the funny stop the train had made, and it was he who had tried to help open the door. Benny suggested perhaps meeting for a coffee on the weekend, so as to talk about it further, and Tom was happy to. He would bring his wife, and they settled on the Spar Café on Sunday.
Benny was now having more thoughts about that trip. It wasn’t just him, someone else had also witnessed it. He would try to get Beth to join him, so as to convince her, he was not hallucinating. That afternoon, he left the office on time (for once), and meeting his wife, ate at a nice restaurant they both knew of. Then it was off for the train. Not without some in trepidation by Benny. The train left on time, and he was glued to the window. Something did happen. Not outside, but inside. A lady sitting across the aisle, came over and excused herself. “Sorry to intrude, but I saw you looking out of the window most intently. Can I presume to ask, for what?”
He was a bit surprised at her directness. “Well I was actually. I was sort of looking for a… I don’t know exactly what I was looking for. A station.” Then he took a more studied look at the lady, a middle aged, maybe a bit older. He knew her face from somewhere recently.
She nodded. “I was on the train the other night when it stopped somewhere. I saw you trying to open the door to the vestibule, without luck, even with help.”
“Of course. Now I remember your face. You were sitting back there a row or two. Oh, this is my wife, Beth.”
“I’m Doris. Doris Bentley. I saw those people on the platform and I also have no clue as to what was going on. Most distressing.”
It was Beth who now spoke, much to Benny’s surprise. “Did you notice the name of the station? Benny thought he saw something, what was it love? Tewk whatever?”
Doris replied before he could open his mouth. “Yes, I saw the name on the back of a bench seat. It was Tewksburn. Never heard of it before. I asked my neighbour, who is very clever with things like that, but he didn’t know either.”
“That was it,” he said. I had seen part of it. Now I remember. Say, we are having coffee on Sunday at the Spar Café at about noon. Would you like to join us, and another couple who have contacted me?. Maybe we can put our heads together and make some sense of it.”
“I can do that. It would be nice to get out on the weekend. I work in the city, but prefer the suburbs. Well we haven’t stopped anywhere unusual, and we just crossed the creek before our stop, so until Sunday.” She smiled and moved towards the vestibule.
Beth broke the silence between them. “Well that was unexpected. But after you getting that phone call today, I am now most definitely not a doubter of your sanity. Come on, time to leave the ghost train.”
At home, there was a message on the landline, from, of all people, Chris Baxter. He was in town for a conference, and could he pop around in the morning for a catch up. He was also bringing Lola. Beth just smiled. “Him and his women. How long has it been since we saw him, a year?”
“About that. I’ll ring his back and tell him to come tomorrow. I’m just dying to see this Lola. What happened to Julie? I’m sure we will find out. Well, not in front of Lola.” Benny fired up his Google browser and typed in Tewksburn. Yes, it was an actual town in the English Midlands. Nothing spectacular or noteworthy. Market town and he even found a photo of the railway station, but he couldn’t match it in his memory to the image displayed.
Later, next morning there was a honk of a car and up pulled his friend in a sporty rental. Benny and Beth were more interested in the sleek brunette who also emerged. Introductions and then much talking and questions asked. Chris was an old friend from his model aero club days, when they would build these model planes with noisy engines and have aerial battles. Others as well, of course. Chris was born in Britain but had emigrated when he was a late teenager. Too cold and wet, he told them.
Then Benny remembered something. “Chris. You were into trains back in England, weren’t you?”
“Oh yes. Loved them. Followed my father’s steps there. He was a gricer, a real one. I can see from your face you don’t know what a gricer is. A train spotter. Something you colonials are lacking in. Why?”
“Ever heard of a town called Tewksburn?”
Chris gave a smile. Even Beth was now interested. He put down his drink and scratched his face. “Tewksburn. Yes. Went there once or twice. Had a great signal box from memory, put in by the GWR for the coal junction. And also the story.”
“The story?”
“Yes. Before my time, but dad told me this story that was all the rage in the 1950s. Still mentioned in railway circles by the oldies. What was it? Oh, yes. Seems this night in 1952, or it could have been 1953, a group of travellers waiting on the main platform for the London Fast Train, reported that a sleek modern rail carriage, just rolled into the platform and stopped. Dad said there was no loco, just a modern looking carriage with people inside. He got this from a traveller and from the national newspaper. Big how do you do. Then it just started moving on. No one knew what it was, and the station master didn’t have a clue. Some of the people wanted to know if it was going to be used on their services. He asked the company, and they denied any knowledge. I think he said they relocated the poor chap to some lonely station, to keep him quiet.”
Benny just looked at Chris, then at his wife. He was visibly shaken.
“No more sightings you might have heard about?” It was Beth who spoke.
Chris just shook his head. “Nothing I heard about. What is the interest in Tewksburn anyway?”
“You would not believe me if I started to tell you. If you really want to know, come again tomorrow at about twelve and meet some friends into that sort of thing.”
Chris was a bit confused. “Sounds mysterious. However Lola and I are lunching with an important person from the conference committee, so will have to give it a miss. But, over a fresh coffee and scone, I can believe anything.”
Jimmy Brook