Lush greens rushed past her in a blur. The bright blue sky was the only constant in the scenery flying by. Vivid colors of blue, yellow, and red danced lazily across the landscape, but Cosima hardly noticed. She swayed gently back and forth in rhythm with the train, the easy rocking lulling her into a daze. To anyone passing by she may have looked asleep but in reality she was deep in thought. A newspaper clipping was clutched tightly in her hand. At the moment it may have been the most valuable thing she had come to own.
On it was a grainy black and white photo with a caption underneath, Largest Squash on Record Found at Cormier Farms. It was not so much the caption that drew her full attention, but the very familiar silhouette among shadowy figures that hung in the background. When she had first seen it, the thin paper fluttered to the ground softly as she gasped in a mixture of desperation and shock. She knew that silhouette. She'd know it anywhere. How many times had she traced it with her fingertips, urging it to memory. For so long she had tried to forget everything about her and move on, but in an instant it all came back stronger than ever before. How could she ever forget?
Cosima had looked up the name of the small town out in the country side of France, scraped up what money she could and bought her train ticket. She didn't know if she was crazy, but she felt drawn to it. She felt like she needed some answers, and had to at least try. There was an ache inside of her that seemed to deepen on that day in the market, it was all consuming and left her breathless again.
What if Delphine was alive?
What if she wasn't?
Opening her eyes, she let out a frustrated sigh and looked out the window at the passing scenery. Her knee bounced anxiously now, but the grip on the newspaper clipping never lessened. Cosima looked at her watch fleetingly and bit her lip.
"Almost there" she whispered.