CHAPTER ONE: HER
A train ticket? There's a train ticket. It's on the ground. It's muddy, it's been stepped on and crumpled, and the rain has nearly soaked it through. Out of all of the passers by, no one was looking at it. No one even noticed that it was there. Except for her. She saw it, and she was looking at it. But why? Something about this damp, tattered, and old piece of paper had caught her attention, but she couldn't figure out what that was. The ink was bleeding on the ticket, making the words slide around the paper like ice skaters, but that's not why it interested her. No that couldn't be why, could it? She wondered who dropped it. What if they needed it? How could they get on the train without it?
Maybe I should take it to the train station? she thought, Then I could look for someone who is frantically searching their pockets for their ticket.
The ticket that they dropped. The ticket that she found. When she picked it up, she saw that it hadn't been punched, never been used. The date was for today, so someone must have bought it recently. Where was the station? It must be close by.
"I don't think I've ever been to the train station." She mumbled to no one.
That's odd, she thought, why would I have never been to the train station?
She knew what a train ticket looked like, she knew that it must be punched to get aboard the train, she must have been at the train station at some point in time. How else would she have known these things?
"I guess I could just google it." she said to herself.
For the first time in two months, she has finally found herself to be alone. Since she got to college she has been surround by people. She just wants to be alone, but she can't, not at college. She took out her phone and opened the Google app. She googled 'train station near me.' The app buffered. And buffered. And buffered.
An error has occurred. Check network connection or try again later.
"You are so much help, Google." She was still alone, but she liked talking even if no one was listening. She felt heard when she talked. Even when no was there to listen.
She took another glance at the ticket. 'October 10, 2017 Naperville Metra Station.'
"Well, I'm in Naperville, so it's bound to be around here somewhere." She said, still talking to know one. That time the only passerby she had seen that morning gave her an odd look. She brushed it off.
Classes were in session, so there weren't a lot of students walking around campus. Then again, it was still 8:30 in the morning. Her roommate had 8 am classes every day, so she got up with her, even though she had nothing to do. So, she walked around campus, it was the only time she had, to be alone. That morning she had gotten halfway through campus, when she found the odd train ticket. She still hadn't figured out why it bothered her so much.
Only the early birds are out right now, and none of them seem to care about this ticket, she thought.
"So why do I?" She said aloud.
She pocketed the train ticket in her right jacket pocket, and returned her phone to her back pocket of her purple jeans. She set off to find the station.
I don't have too much time, she thought, there is only an hour and a half before my next class, so I can't walk too far.
Heck, Naperville was so small, she could walk its length in under twenty minutes from her dorm room in Ward Hall, and she was already halfway across campus.
It wasn't raining hard anymore, just a little misting of water, but it was nice to walk through. The past few weeks had been over 90 degrees, but now it was finally starting to feel like fall. She loved the fall; in fall she could finally wear her sweaters. Today, it was finally cool enough to break out her cream colored, cowl neck sweater. She loved that sweater, it wasn't too tight but it also wasn't too loose, it was just baggy enough to be the most comfortable thing she owned.
It had been raining all night, so there were puddles everywhere. She did her best not to step in any (which of course meant she jumped into every single one that she came across). Pretty soon, she was at the edge of campus, and still had no idea where she was going.
"I guess I'll just keep going straight." It made as much sense as anything else. "God, my feet are cold. Maybe jumping in puddles wasn't the best idea." She did have a point. "I'll change my socks when I get back to my dorm." A wise plan.
Laughing to herself, she stumbled upon some construction that made her cross to the left side of the road. There were cranes and a bulldozer and forklifts; and she was pretty sure she saw a wrecking ball. And now that Miley Cyrus song was stuck in her head.
Quietly she sang to herself. "I came in like a wrecking ball, I never hit so hard in love, all I wanted was to break your walls, all you ever did was wre-e-eck me, yeah you, you wre-e-eck me."
Caught up in the only slightly relevant Miley song that she knew, she almost walked straight onto the train tracks. That would have really sucked considering two seconds later a train zoomed past, the gust of wind nearly knocked her off her feet.
"Well I guess this is the train station." she said mostly to herself, but now there were actual people around. She had completely walked past the actual building part of the station, but it was easy to see why. It was so tiny, it looked like one of those little buildings in the middle of a state park that was just for bathrooms.
Entering the shack-like station, she found a sign that pointed her towards the ticket counter. She pulled the still slightly damp-but not as much as before- ticket out of her pocket. she walked to the nearest window with no one in line, and showed the worker the found ticket.
"Hey, I thought I should ask—" She wasn't exactly sure where she was going with that, but the worker cut her off before she could figure it out.
"Yes, I will print you a new ticket to replace your ruined one. No, I will not let you keep that one. No, it won't cost an additional charge. Put the ticket under the glass." The worker behind the glass said in a very tired monotone, obviously not a morning person, but that she understood.
"Oookay." She said slowly, as she slid the ticket under the glass pane separating her from the worker.
"This ticket is for the Metra to Chicago and for Amtrak, don't lose it or wreck it again, I won't give you another." The worker said as they slid the new ticket towards her.
"Thanks, but I really just wanted to—" figure out who dropped that ticket, is what she was trying to say.
"When the loud speaker says there is an inbound train to Chicago get on that one, then stay on until it says you have arrived at Chicago. You will be at grand station. Get off the train and get out of the track area. Then go left and you will be at the Amtrak gate. The number on your ticket will tell you where to go and if you can't find it, go to their help desk." They went on. "Now get out of my line you are holding up other customers!"
She did as she was told, and got out of her line. Well at least I got whoever dropped their ticket a new one, she thought.
Maybe they dropped it because it was ruined , and they got a new one, so they are just a litterer. But the worker behind the counter gave HER a new ticket. The one she found wasn't even a ticket for that train, right? They said that, didn't they?
Oh, dear, now I don't know what to do. She thought.
"An inbound train, toward Chicago, is approaching." The loudspeaker outside boomed.
"Whoever dropped this is probably out there right now." She whispered to herself, "I'll go out there, and if I see someone looking for their ticket, great, I'll give them this one. If not, I'll go back to campus."
Yeah that was a good idea. And that was what she was going to do.
"Stay behind the yellow safety line. An inbound train, toward…." The loudspeaker continued to prattle on. She wished she would have heard that before she almost got hit by that train a few minutes ago.
Scanning the crowd, she searched for anyone who was looking concerned, or searching for a potentially lost ticket, but no one was. At least, no one that she saw was, everyone was too focused on the incoming train.
Her focus shifted to the train as well. It was much closer than she thought it was going to be.
Either I find this person now, or I'm just going to go home, she thought.
I hope I do find them though... I'd feel bad if the missed their train.
The train pulled up to the station, and she still hadn't see anyone that might be missing their ticket.
"What if they don't know that they lost it?" she wondered out loud.
Then they'd get on the train without their ticket. She thought. What happens if you board a train without a ticket?
"I don't know," She answered herself. "But I know that I would not want to find out while it was happening to me."
Sounds like you know what you've got to do, she told herself.
"This is a bad idea."
But it's the only one we have.
"Let the record show I didn't want to do this," she said. She knew that this was not going to be one of her smart moments.
The train pulled into the station and stopped. The crowd rushed to board the train, and she boarded the train with them.