Grace had no idea where she was driving. She'd started driving and at this point she was hoping she would figure it out along the way. As she drove she took stock of everything that had occurred. First, her and Simon had kissed, which was amazing. Then they'd found the train and captured it on video, also amazing. And then a little girl had fallen out of it and was now sleeping in her backseat. Grace turned her head to look at the girl, named Hazel, who was still fast asleep. She took another look, this time at Simon in the passenger seat.
"What are we going to do?" he asked and Grace looked at him with a goofy face.
"There are quite a few things going on, you'll have to be more specific." she said and Simon clarified.
"About the little girl that we've kidnaped." he said and Grace rolled her eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about, we haven't kidnapped anyone." she responded and Simon nodded.
"I know that, and you know that, but when the police pull us over I don't think they'll know that." he explained and Grace waved him off.
"When she wakes up we'll ask her about her parents and then we'll take her home." she asserted and Simon looked at her wearily.
"I mean, do you think she even knows that stuff? Kids forget details like that all of the time." Simon said nervously. Grace parked the car on some random side road and put her hand on Simon's shoulder.
"Listen, we'll figure this out." she said calmly. "We caught the train, we can do anything." she added and at this Simon softened.
"You know, you're really pretty when you're inspired like that." he teased and Grace looked away embarrassed.
"Are you two going to start kissing again?" a voice from the backseat asked and both turned around to see Hazel wide awake. She was still wrapped in the blanket that Grace had given her and she looked more annoyed than anything which Grace supposed was an improvement from earlier.
"No, we won't." she promised before moving the conversation along. "Hazel, can you tell us where your parents are?" she asked. Hazel looked at her curiously before giving an answer.
"Tuba is on the train." she said and Simon looked confused.
"Who's Tuba?" he questioned and Hazel answered.
"She's the one that takes care of me, isn't that what a parent is?" she questioned and Grace whispered something to Simon.
"I think she's talking about her denizen." she said and Simon nodded in agreeance. Grace posed another question to Hazel to try and find out who her parents were off of the train. "Who took care of you before Tuba?" Grace asked and Hazel raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"What do you mean?" she asked and Simon attempted to clarify.
"Was the person who took care of you before you got on the train?" he said and Hazel looked even more confused.
"I don't know, all of my memories are on the train." she said and at that point both Grace and Simon felt that something was wrong.
"Hazel, how did you get off the train?" she questioned and Hazel looked nervous before answering.
"A lady came and took me from Tuba. She took me to a weird place with a talking ball. The ball told me that I was an anomaly so they kicked me off of the train." she said tiredly. Her face fell as she shared the story, it was clear that it had been frightening for the little girl. Quietly, she began to cry. That crying was quickly replaced with violent shaking and the two watched as Hazel transformed into a humanoid turtle creature. Grace was sure that if she'd been driving she would have crashed.
Hazel didn't seem to notice the change as she was still so involved in her crying that it hadn't even registered to her. In that moment Grace had a choice to make and she fought with herself internally over if she would call attention to it or not. Eventually she elected not to as she reached out and comforted Hazel by patting her hair and gently reaffirming her. This greatly calmed Hazel down and she slowly returned to her normal form. Simon watched for a moment before starting to talk.
"Do you want to see something cool?" Simon asked and Hazel sniffled and nodded. Fishing his phone out of his pocket he handed the thing to Hazel and opened an app. "You have to match all of the colors, and when you do you win." he expressed before showing her how to work it. Hazel's eyes practically had stars in them as she played the game, something that luckily seemed to make her far more calm. Noticing that they were near a gas station Grace drove over to refill her tan. Simon insisted on pumping the gas and Grace stood near him as he did.
"Giving her your phone? Now that's a good trick." she said jokingly and Simon looked sheepish.
"I've got little cousins." he explained and Grace nodded. She looked at Hazel who still sat, content in the backseat playing on the game and Grace felt something swell in her soul. Hazel reminded her of someone, or something. In her Grace saw all of the unspoiled potential of childhood mixed up with the obvious trauma that she'd had to endure. She walked over to the girl and tapped on the window, which Hazel rolled down.
"Do you want a snack?" Grace asked and the girl nodded so Grace went into the gas station properly grabbing some of the snack cakes sold near the counter and walking over to pay. It was as she paid that she registered the stares from the other patrons and remembered that she was still wearing a prom dress. Grace laughed internally, a girl in an incredibly expensive prom dress at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. After paying she returned to the car and passed out snacks.
"I haven't had one of these in years." Simon said in reference to the snack that Grace had just handed him. "My mom used to give me these and I'd eat them with hot chocolate." he said wistfully.
"Ah, the wonders of childhood." Grace said playfully as she gently mocked the seeming raptorius love he had for that memory. Both turned back to Hazel who looked confused at the topic of conversation.
"Hazel, have you ever had hot chocolate?" he questioned and Hazel gave him a confused look before shaking her head in response. "Do you want some?" he asked and Hazel nodded after seemingly thinking about it for a moment. Simon looked at Grace. "Is the Starbucks still open?" he questioned. "I'll pay." he added quickly and Grace waved him off.
"It's fine, let's get some hot chocolate." she responded and the three went through the drive- through with Hazel being given her hot chocolate, and a warning.
"It's hot, be careful." Grace warned. Hazel nodded at this and sipped carefully, smiling at the taste of the drink. Grace turned on the radio to some quiet, semi-melancholy song that Hazel seemed to enjoy and turned to Simon. "Can you help me get something out of the trunk?" Grace asked and Simon agreed as the two exited the car and went around to the back. "I don't actually need something from the trunk." Grace began and Simon nodded.
"I know." he said and the two climbed up, sitting on the trunk of the car so that they could talk without having to worry about Hazel overhearing something they didn't want her to.
"So, this is crazy, but it's probably one of the least crazy things that exists on the train so…" Grace trailed off as Simon said out loud what both were thinking.
"I don't think Hazel has parents." Simon said and Grace let out a deep sigh in response.
"Yeah, I have no idea how she ended up out here, sense that's the case, but you're probably right." she said tiredly.
"You know, she has a number on her hand." Simon said quietly. "I don't think it glows or changes or anything, it's like a tattoo." he added as he stared at his own hands, where his number had once been. He looked at Grace and she listened as he spoke. "What are we going to do?" he questioned. Grace let out a long suffering sigh as she seemingly struggled to come up with an acceptable answer. Maybe there wasn't one. She was deeply worried about Hazel, about what would happen to her. She was also worried about herself. Suddenly she turned to Simon and gave the first answer that popped into her head.
"Let's just run away together!" she said breathlessly and Simon was so caught off guard he almost fell off of the car. He stared at her for a moment before giving a response.
"Are you serious right now?" he asked. Grace nodded vigorously.
"Yeah, I mean why not. Let's just run away together, with Hazel, and start a new life." she said as went over her plan. Simon laughed at this.
"So, there's a few issues with that, the first being I have approximately thirty four dollars and twenty seven cents in my bank account right now. The second being, we both have families that would definitely look for us. The third being we haven't even graduated yet. And the final being the fact that we are in no way ready to take care of a kid." he said listing off the holes in Grace's plan. Grace looked at him seriously.
"First, I'm rich. Second, you can tell your parents, it's not like we're going off the grid. Third, we don't have time to wait for graduation considering that someone needs to take care of Hazel now. And finally maybe not, but we are probably the only people in the world who have a chance of understanding Hazel." she added. "I know we just found her but, she reminds me of both of us. I want her to turn out better then we did and that means having a better support system." she added quietly. Simon let out another sigh.
"Do you honestly think this plan is going to work?" he asked and Grace opened her mouth to say something but closed it and reformulated her thoughts before trying again.
"No, but what are we supposed to do Simon? If Hazel really was made on the train there are no records of her or anything, we can't go to any authorities about this and even if we could…" Grace turned around on the trunk to look through the back window. She saw Hazel still sipping her hot chocolate and listening to the radio. "If anyone found out about that other stuff she could be in real danger." Grace added. Simon looked at the both of them, Grace and Hazel and knew that Grace was right. A deeply sad look appeared on Grace's face and he rushed to correct it.
"Hey, we'll figure this out." he said, mirroring Grace's words. "We'll keep her safe, I promise." He said as he took her hand. This calmed Grace down as she gave Simon a small smile.
"I love you." she said happily. Simon smiled back.
"I love you too." he responded. Simon moved in closer for a kiss but before their lips could meet behind them Hazel bangged on the window causing both to jump.
"You promised no kissing!" she said seriously and Grace stifled a laugh as the two climbed back into the car with Grace apologizing for almost breaking the promise. As Grace started the car she turned to Simon and addressed something she'd just remembered.
"Hey, that video has Hazel coming off of the train right?" she asked. Simon nodded.
"Yeah." he responded. Grace took a deep breath.
"Maybe we shouldn't post that." she began. "I know that it's the culmination of all of our work and it proves everything we thought but then people might start looking into Hazel and that's a whole can of worms." she said. To her surprise Simon was seemingly ahead of her.
"Don't worry, that video will never see that light of day." he promised. Grace started the car and pulled out of the Starbucks parking lot onto the street, which was illuminated only by street lamps. "Where to next?" Simon asked and Grace could only smile and stare ahead.
"Only one way to find out." she said as the three traversed on, the rest of the night laid out before them. As Grace drove off the problems that would arrive in the morning as the sun rose were small and far away, all that there was were the people in the car. Hazel, the girl who she'd felt an immediate connection to; and Simon, someone who's life intertwined with her's in only the strangest of ways. Grace couldn't imagine a better night to be alive.