Grace wasn't sure how long she stood there letting Simon comfort her but she knew it had been too long. Neither of her parents were going to bother to check on her which she suspected. She figured they'd probably finish dinner and then go home. She didn't plan to be there when they did.
"Let's go for a drive." she said and Simon nodded as they walked towards the car. Grace exchanged glances with the driver's seat before tiredly handing him the keys. "You drive." she said and Simon didn't protest as he climbed into the driver's seat.
"Where are we headed?" he asked and Grace wished she could give him an answer. Despite her lack of a response he started the car and began driving anyway. They drove mostly in circles. Grace placed her head against the window and stared at the few stars that could be seen on such a cloudy night. Neither of them bothered to touch the radio and the silence settled in the car, not as eerie, but almost comforting. It might have stayed quiet a bit longer had it not been for the sound of a train rumbling on in the distance.
Grace shot up and then calmed herself down. Trains were everywhere, hearing one wasn't a big deal. Still, she hadn't been the only one caught off guard as Simon had done the same upon hearing the sound. Perhaps both of them were a bit too sensitive to their fears and that was the cause of the reaction. That answer was enough for Grace and she went to lay her head down against the window once again until she made a realization. The train was getting closer, and they weren't near train tracks.
"Simon, look!" she said grabbing his shoulder and gesturing towards the ground in front of their car. Sure enough there was no train track as the sound of the train became louder and closer. The two looked at each other and Simon fished his phone from his pocket hoping to record something that could be useful as proof. The two sat there with baited breath hoping for any sort of conclusive evidence as the sounds seemed to indicate the train was almost there. And nothing happened. The sounds of the train suddenly faded to sound farther away.
It was as if the train had skipped right past them to the other side of their car and was now powering on away from them. Simon let out a sigh as he put his phone away having seen nothing of interest and Grace wondered if she'd simply imagined what she'd heard. She settled back into the seat and glanced at Simon. No, she'd heard it, they both had. A piece of paper danced in the wind past Grace's window and for a reason she couldn't decipher she rolled the window down and grabbed it.
"What is it?" Simon asked as he turned on the light so she could better read.
"International Train Show, Markum St, March 17th." she read off. The flyer also included drawings of two trains, one a gilded luxury train with a red carpet. The other was an old coal powered train with smoke pouring out of the top. It wasn't lost on Grace that the first train was the one she'd boarded and the second was Simon's based on his reaction to the flyer.
"That can't be a coincidence, right?" he asked. And Grace nodded in response.
"If this is a coincidence then everything is a coincidence." Grace concluded. "This is a sign from the train, it's giving us a warning." Simon raised an eyebrow
"What do you mean by that?" he asked and Grace started to explain but hesitated and said something different instead.
"It would probably be easier to explain on the corkboard." she offered and understanding what she meant Simon drove them back to his house. Both gave quick greetings to his mother before dashing to the room and setting up the camera. Grace took the flyer and put it in the center of the board. Simon sat down as she began to give her explanation of what this all meant. "The train's goal is to pick up people it see's as damaged and to fix them. As we know it's methods for this and how it decides what constitutes being fixed isn't great but that's what it does."
"If it was actually successful in it's goal of fixing people I highly doubt that we'd be here obsessing over a magic train instead of doing normal stuff." Simon assessed and Grace nodded in agreement.
"The train only appears to people who it thinks are in need of being picked up and it doesn't want to be seen which begs the question, why would it give us a specific place to find it?" Grace questioned as she added another picture to the corkboard. "The reason is simply, the train wants to put us back on it, but it knows it can't lure us through conventional means so it's using unconventional means." she said as her explanation. Simon nodded and gave a recap of what she'd just explained.
"So essentially, the train is using the fact that we want to find it to lure us back into its radius so that it can supposedly fix us." he said.
"Basically." Grace added, flopping onto his bed casually.
"And our plan here is what?" Simon asked. "To walk directly into it's trap?" Grace shrugged at his sarcastic question.
"Do you have a better plan?" she asked and Simon opened his mouth before closing it because she knew as well as he did that the answer to that question was no. "That's what I thought." she said self-satisfied.
"You know, there isn't just one Markum Street, how do we know which one the flyer is referring to?" he asked and now it was Grace's turn to pause because she didn't have an answer. Now it was Simon's turn to look smug and self-satisfied.
"Well, if I remember correctly you made a comprehensive list of all the places the train was unlikely to visit, so why don't you retrieve it so we know which Markum Streets to cross off?" she asked and Simon obliged. They left the camera running with Simon assuring Grace that he'd edit out all of the boring parts of them going through street names and the like. Neither intended to pull an all-nighter but as the list of street names grew on and they crossed more off it was clear that was what had happened.
"It's two am." Grace muttered to herself as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. "I feel like I'm dying." she said, powering through a yawn. Simon chuckled and sipped at his coffee which Grace had been forced to watch, horrified, as he brewed with Monster.
"If you would just drink some you would feel fine." he offered. Grace rolled her eyes.
"Your right, then I would look like I was dying instead." she shot back and Simon faked pain over her retort.
"I'll have to keep that in mind when I finish all the work while you sleep on the floor." he offered in response. Grace dug her phone from her purse.
"I have twenty three missed calls from my mother." she noted dully. Normally, such information would have been enough to kill Grace on the spot but either from the rush of having a real lead on the train or from the sheer tiredness she couldn't bring herself to feel anything other than apathy at the development. Simon on the other hand looked utterly terrified at the news.
"Is she going to kill you? Is this the last time I'm ever going to see you?" he asked with a combination of humor and genuine nervousness in his voice. Grace shrugged.
"Probably. I should go home." she explained grabbing her purse and keys from Simon's desk with the intention of driving home. As she did Simon watched her and seeing how tired she was made an offer.
"You of course don't have to listen to me or anything, but driving tired is really dangerous so if you want you can stay here overnight." he said nervously. Even as tired as she was Grace was able to enjoy the way Simon managed to look everywhere in the room except her when making the offer.
"Are you trying to get me in even more trouble?" she asked teasingly. Simon quickly shook his head and waved his hands.
"No, not even a little. I just want you to be safe and everything." even though it was possibly the most corny thing she'd ever heard Grace couldn't help the warmth in her checks at the comment.
"Aww, you care about me." she said. "And don't worry about me getting in trouble. I was just teasing you, she's mad at me right now and she'll still be mad at me in a few hours." Grace explained casually. "Is your mom going to be okay with it?" she asked. Simon waved off her concerns.
"She'll be fine with it, I'm sure she'd also prefer you stay here and live over trying to drive and risking your life." he offered and Grace nodded. "You can sleep on the couch, I'll show you where the blankets are." he said and Grace took the opportunity to poke fun at him.
"What, no offer to share the bed?" she said laughing and Simon chuckled giving a retort.
"I don't think you'd enjoy it, I'll kick you in my sleep." he said seriously which made the comment even more funny. Simon gave her a blanket from the closet and directed her towards the couch. Grace yawned and stretched and Simon made a comment.
"Are you going to be comfortable sleeping in that?" he questioned. Grace rolled her eyes and gave a response.
"No, but I wasn't exactly planning for a sleepover so this is what I'm working with." she said humorously. In all honesty she wasn't looking forward to sleeping in the dress she'd worn to dinner but there wasn't really another option so she'd power through it like someone having to sleep in jeans. Simon opened his mouth and started to say something.
"You can borrow-" he began before cutting himself off something which was of a great relief to Grace because they both knew what he was going to say and Grace was so tired that she might not have had a quippy response. She was so tired that she might have said yes and that wouldn't have been okay because Grace and Simon were supposed to be platonic friends and had she said yes to the thing he was about to say Grace wasn't sure she'd be able to keep considering them platonic friends.
"Goodnight." Grace said abruptly and Simon stood there awkwardly for a moment likely also feeling the same tension in the atmosphere. Grace wondered if he'd stopped himself because he didn't want to make her uncomfortable or if he'd stopped because he knew as well as she did that he almost crossed the invisible barrier of friendship that let them be able to act so freely around each other.
"Goodnight." Simon said as he retreated upstairs and Grace pondered if he was going to keep thinking about that moment because even though she didn't want to she was sure that she was going to. She laid down on the couch under the blanket and thought about how Simon had come to check on her when her parents had not. On the face of it that wasn't a significant moment. She hadn't expected her parents to interrupt their meal to deal with her and Simon was her friend so of course he'd checked on her. She'd have done the same for him.
But when he'd held her, when he'd told her that she wasn't everything that her mother told her she was, Grace felt a kind of safety that she rarely felt. When they'd hugged Grace thought for just a split second that he might try to kiss her and break that feeling of safety but he hadn't and of course he hadn't, they were friends. Still, Grace felt her heart rate increase at the idea and she kept repeating that mantra in her head because Simon was her friend and she had to keep reminding herself of that and she didn't know why.