*** South ***

Inspired by "Southbound again", written by Mark Knopfler.

.

Private opened his eyes. The clattering of the train had helped him get to sleep the previous night, but when he woke up thoughts had come back. He knew it was a temporary transfer, but he would miss his teammates a lot. The previous evening, he had tried to look strong, being so young, and he knew he didn't tease them. They cried almost more than him when he went under the main gate lintel in Central Park Zoo. Then the station... and now the long way to Houston. He would go back transformed, a true soldier. He had promised Skipper.

It was daylight, although there wasn't much light filtering in the freight coach. Private didn't know where he was or how long he had been there. He had a map, but it wasn't very useful. He opened the crate with a paperclip given by Rico and went out. Light came from a small window at the top of the coach. If he climbed the crates, he'd arrive there and at least he could see the landscape. There was much of the journey left, he had been told that it was almost two days of journey... and he would get quite bored. He observed everything looking for the easiest and safest way upwards. And, with determination, he started to climb. Not knowing that he was being observed.

"Very well done, boy!"

Private frowned. Where did that voice come from? He had thought he was alone, he hadn't seen or heard anyone since he had arrived at the train. Would he be a friend or a foe? Just in case, he hid behind a crate.

"You climb better than you hide," the same voice said. His footsteps could be heard too. "Don't cover your eyes, you cannot see me doing that."

Private moved his flipper away from his eyes and saw him. He was another penguin. Private studied him with attention: clearly he belonged to a different species, he was taller than Kowalski, and his head was full of white feathers, quite dishevelled. But what called his attention more was his stare: distracted and... squinting? Private decided not to stare at his eyes: the other penguin would notice that he had discovered his little flaw.

"It seems that we're travelling together. Are you going to Houston too? I'm Nigel, pleased to meet you."

"Same to you. I'm Private, and... yes." What was the point in lying? "I'll be for a while in the zoo there."

"What a coincidence! I'm going there too!"

Private smiled, not very sure. "I thought I was going alone."

"I thought the same," Nigel said. "Well, the journey will be more entertaining. We are still in the Great Lakes zone."

"Really?" Private took out the map and pointed at the route drawn by Kowalski with a marker. "We're here, right?"

"No. That's Lake Michigan. There's some time left for arriving there. We're here, at Lake Erie."

"Yet?!" Private huffed. "Well... can we see the lake from here?"

"Take a look."

Private leaned out the window. Everywhere he looked, he only saw water. He wasn't sure about if he was seeing solid ground at the other side, it was misty.

"What's there at the other side?"

"Canada. But, on days like this, I'd rather say that at the other side there is Avalon."

"Avalon? What's that?"

"Don't you know the Arthurian legends?" Nigel saw in his eyes that he didn't. "Well, I think we'll have time to talk about it. One of the stories that make my homeland great."

"Antarctica?"

"What? No! I'm an English gentleman. From Newcastle Upon Tyne."

Private looked at him bewildered.

"Newcastle is one of the biggest cities in England. I thought it would be better known at the other side of the ocean, but I see I was wrong. Are you from New York?"

"I was born on a drifting iceberg, near Antarctica... but yeah, I could say I am," Private said with a nostalgic smile.

"Young America... for us, who live in Old Europe, it's still a mystery." Nigel smiled too. "You're still there and you miss it."

"More my family than the place."

"We all feel the same." His voice sounded hurt. "I thought I had a family, but it's incompatible with treason. Better not to go back. Yesterday I wanted to cry when I came in the train."

Private, despite his youth, knew very well how to read between lines. He preferred to say nothing, he knew that silence was better than asking, encouraging or advising.

.

For a long while both penguins remained silent, sitting next to each other on the top of all the crates. They were still seeing Lake Erie, it was endless. It was cold in the coach, and out there the lake surface was surely frozen. Mist had given way to a gray, cloudy, steellike day. Would all the journey be like that?

"What is waiting for us when we arrive?" Private wanted to know. "Is Houston like New York?"

"I don't know. I've never been to Houston, and New York... I've seen it for a few hours." That was half truth. He had been there years ago, but everything had changed since then.

"Oh, well... And England?"

Nigel smiled painfully. "It's beautiful. I dream of being there forever, looking after a garden... but for now, when I leave, I don't know if it will be my home some day."

"Maybe your home will be Antarctica, as mine," Private said.

"Too far South. You'll have to roam a lot before arriving there."

Private smiled. He remained silent again: he couldn't tell that stranger that he and his teammates had already made a plan to go back home, but they couldn't accomplish it until that stage of his life recently started just ended.

.

The landscape changed. Solid ground, never ending, covered by snow. The sky was white.

"There you have your Antarctica," Nigel joked.

"It looks like it, but it's not the same. It's different."

"For me it will always be the same."

"Antarctica?" Private wanted to know if Nigel had been there. And that he said everything about it.

"No... crossing Tyne."

"Tyne?"

"Newcastle's river." Nigel made a pause. "One day I learnt that the word and its variations meant many things centuries ago. Anxiety. Grief. All very happy, as you see." Nigel laughed.

"Well... it's just a name." Private always wanted to see the bright side of everything.

"And future is just future. Unwritten, but I don't know if I am at the end of the book." Nigel looked at Private. "But I must carry on as long as there's a mission to accomplish."

Nigel had his mission too, he wasn't talking without a reason. Anybody would have thought that he wandered just because, that he was going through life like a spinning top... but nothing further from reality. Nigel had found his client, had identified him and was at his service. And he liked the boy more than he had expected. He would be in Texas all the time that Private needed him and then he'd disappear.

"It's snowing!" Private shouted, taking Nigel out of his thoughts.

"And it may snow for hours. I don't think it changes until we arrive at Chicago, where we'll turn Southwards. It will be a good image for tea time."

"Tea time?" Private was surprised. "Are we going to have tea? Here? In a freight train?"

"I'm always ready for tea time," Nigel answered showing a tartan suitcase. "I miss when I had tea with my nephews and nieces. Would you like some?"

"Of course, I'll be happy to have tea with you... uncle Nigel." Private's smile was warm and sincere.

It was then when the journey really started.