Chapter 2
March
Emma stared at the woman on the train as she slept peacefully. The more she stared at her, the more she became mesmerized with the woman's beauty. She didn't know who she was, and yet she couldn't stop thinking about her. She wondered if she should approach the woman and introduce herself, since they both seemed to have the same travel schedule. Emma knew the woman was way out of her league, and yet she somehow found the confidence to make an important decision: she would introduce herself to the woman on the train…if she could manage to catch up with her first.
As she had done for the past few months, as soon as the doors opened Emma dashed off the train and raced towards the exit, in an attempt to catch up to the woman, only to reach the street below and find she was already gone. Disappointment shot through her as she began to walk towards Main Street, her eyes darting around in search of the woman. Spring was in the air and the trees were just starting to bud as she turned the corner onto Main Street and the familiar inn came into sight. A wave of hope rushed through her as she spotted the woman walking into the very same inn she was heading towards.
Taking off into a run, she raced down the street in the hopes of meeting the woman in the lobby, only to find her gone by the time she must already have her key like I do. How else could she be checked in and upstairs already,she thought as she quickly walked through the lobby and up the stairs. Service in the small town moved much like the townsfolk did, a bit slowly. She made it up the stairs just in time to see the door at the end of the hallway close after a figure with long brown hair walked through the threshold.
The room directly next to her own.
That has to be her!Emma thought to herself as she quickly let herself into her usual room.
She stood in the center of the room and listened for sounds coming from the room next door, and after a few minutes she could just barely hear the evidence of someone moving around behind the wall. She laid on the bed for a few minutes, just listening to the sounds of the woman milling around in the next room, her brain envisioning a life she could have with the woman, if only she could catch up with her. She was just starting to doze off when she heard the woman's door open and close, and the sound of booted footsteps walking quickly down the hall. She sprang out of bed and peeled out of the room, practically falling down the stairs as she attempted to catch up with the women, yet unsurprisingly she was nowhere to be seen once she finally made it outside. Kicking herself for once again missing her opportunity to speak to the woman, she began her monthly ritual and slowly walked to her first stop, the quaint little blue house she was so intrigued with.
After staring up at the house for a few minutes, her overactive imagination began to picture herself coming home after a long day at work, walking up the porch steps and stepping inside the warm and loving home. Emma smiled as she stared at the cottage for a few more seconds before she continued her walk through the small town. Taking a right at the end of the street she continued to walk a small distance, until she reached the small cemetery. As a child, the idea of a cemetery used to scare her; simply knowing there were hundreds of dead bodies buried under the soil freaked her out. But for some reason this cemetery didn't scare her. In fact, it comforted her. She stared off into the distance, taking in some of the older headstones that stood near the street when she thought she saw movement off in the distance. Looking up and searching the area she found not even a branch moving on the trees, and decided she was going crazy. There was still a slight chill in the air even though it was the end of March, and the cool breeze pushed her to keep moving to stay warm.
Later that night – as she laid in bed staring at the ceiling, willing herself to fall asleep – she could hear the mysterious woman moving around, getting ready for bed herself. She started thinking about the woman, trying to picture what her bedtime routine might she wear flannel pajama pants and an old t-shirt to bed, like I do? Or does she prefer to wear fancy silk pajamas that make you feel like you're wearing practically nothing at all?She knew nothing of this woman, but for some reason she knew she preferred the latter. Her mind continued to race with thoughts of this woman as she finally drifted off to sleep, hoping desperately that she would see her again on the train the following morning.
April
She was practically running down Main Street, trying to catch up with the woman ahead of her before she reached the inn. But, as always, she wasn't quite fast enough, and by the time Emma reached her room the woman was already tucked away inside her own. She sighed as she sat on the bed, listening to the soft sounds of the woman moving around next door. Just as she had the previous months, she spent the entire train ride to Storybrooke staring at the woman, and like always she failed to catch up with woman is going to be the death of me,she thought to herself as she flopped onto the bed and rested her eyes briefly while she waited to hear if the woman would emerge.
She must have fallen asleep, because she was suddenly startled awake by the sound of a door slamming shut, and the familiar sound of booted feet rushing down the carpeted hallway. She shot out of her room – like a bat out of hell – and raced to the front door, but still wasn't quite fast enough to catch the woman. Angry at herself for falling asleep, she began her monthly pilgrimage, and started to make her way to her favorite blue house. Her mind was in a fog, half chastising herself for missing another opportunity by falling asleep, and the other half thinking about the woman, when she turned the corner onto the familiar road where her favorite little house resided.
Her heart stopped when she looked up to find none other than the woman from the train, standing in front of the very same tiny blue house she was there to see. As she got closer she was able to see that the woman was crying, her shoulders and upper body quivering slightly as she sobbed silently. It broke Emma's heart to see her so distraught, and she didn't understand why. A few moments later, the woman wiped her eyes and continued down the street, causing Emma to panic. This was her chance and she was getting away.
"HEY!" Emma yelled, breaking into a run. "HEY WAIT!" The woman didn't even flinch as Emma continued to call out to her while she turned the corner at the end of the street. Emma pushed herself harder than her legs could handle in an attempt to catch up with the woman, forcing herself to run faster than she had ever run in her entire life. But, no matter how hard she tried, by the time she reached the corner the woman was gone, as if she had vanished into thin air. Emma cursed loudly in frustration. No matter what she did, she just couldn't seem to catch the woman. With a sigh of defeat, she started walking down the street towards her second destination, the cemetery at the end of the road.
She paused and stared out at the rows and rows of headstones, trying to read the names engraved on them until the warm April breeze broke her out of her thoughts. Taking one last gaze at the cemetery, in a selfish attempt to see if perhaps the mysterious woman might be taking a stroll through the graveyard, she continued on her path. She made a full circle, ending up back on Main Street, where she continued to the small diner attached to the inn. She had seen the same staff members working in both the inn and the diner, so she assumed both establishments were owned by the same person, or in the very least, the same family. The bell rang over the door as she entered and slid into her favorite booth in the corner.
She loved going to the diner and people watching, almost as much as she loved the grilled cheese and fries the small vintage restaurant offered. She scanned the room, noticing that the usual crowd was already there, eating and talking, enjoying their time when, out of the corner of her eye, she swore she saw the woman walk up to the door. Disappointment rushed through her when the door opened to reveal it wasn't the woman after all, but the usual tall brunette waitress who worked at the diner. She released a sad sigh as she went back to watching the other customers while she waited for the tall waitress to take her order. Although she didn't see the woman again until the following morning when they boarded the train back to Boston, she could hear her getting ready for bed through the wall, as she had the previous month.
May
Emma stood quietly behind the door of her room at the inn. She could hear the woman moving around in the room next door, and she was determined to catch her this time. She slipped through Emma's fingers one too many times already, so this time she was going to be ready. The moment she heard the door open, she turned the doorknob and pulled, ready to come face-to-face with the beautiful woman from the train. Except, instead of opening the door when she pulled on the doorknob, she was met with resistance. Unbeknownst to her, she had somehow managed to lock her door. Fumbling with the bolt, she cursed herself for locking the door, even though she couldn't remember doing so. Eventually she managed to open the door, only to find the hallway completely empty. She ran out, slamming her door behind her and rushed out of the building. Unsurprisingly, the woman was long gone by the time she made it outside.
She kicked the curb out of frustration and started the walk towards the blue house, her head held low with disappointment. Her heart skipped a beat with anticipation when she turned the corner onto the street, and the blue house came into view. But the woman wasn't there as she had been the previous month. Emma stopped in front of the house and visions of a happy couple standing on the porch drinking glasses of red wine as they watched a peaceful thunderstorm flashed through her mind, causing a stray tear to fall from her eyes.
Whoever lives here must have a pretty amazing life,she thought to herself as she turned to continue her trek across Storybrooke. She turned the corner at the end of the street just in time to see the unattainable woman from the train enter the cemetery, a bouquet of yellow flowers clenched tightly in her hand.
Does she always have flowers when she comes to Storybrooke?she asked herself as she started running towards the cemetery. Out of respect for the dead, she didn't call out to her, instead she picked up the pace and pushed herself to run as fast as she could in an attempt to catch up.
Once she entered the cemetery she looked around, but wasn't surprised when she couldn't find the woman anywhere. She searched every row in the small graveyard, eventually giving up and making her way to the diner to have her monthly dinner.
She left the diner a few hours later and walked to her final stop of the evening, the Storybrooke docks. She found her favorite bench and took a seat, the cup of hot chocolate clutched between her hands was warming her frozen fingers. The wind circled around her as she stared out at the waves crashing into the shore below, the light from the moon illuminating the ocean in front of her. The air around her smelled like salt water and chocolate from the cup currently keeping her hands warm as the cool air wrapped around her.
This was, without a doubt, her favorite place in Storybrooke.
There was something so peaceful about the sound of the water as it crashed into the beach that lulled her into a sense of peace. She couldn't figure out why, but this very spot always brought her joy whenever she sat there, which is why she continued to come here month-after-month. She stared out at the horizon until her hot chocolate turned ice cold and the moon shifted in the night sky, which indicated it was time to call it a night. She would be up early the next day to catch the nine o'clock train back to Boston, and she needed to rest.
She walked back to the inn, hoping to run into the woman again, but as predicted, she was nowhere to be seen. She laid in bed and listened as the woman got ready for bed, walking around quietly in the room next door.
"Why won't you let me talk to her?" she whispered into the darkness as she stared up at the ceiling. "Why are you keeping her away from me?" Silent tears fell down her face as she continued to listen to the woman next door until her room was quiet as well. At least she would see the woman on the train the following morning.
She fell asleep with the image of the woman in her mind, wishing that she could one day speak to her.
June
It was starting to get warm in Boston as June came to a close. Even though the heat didn't bother her much these days, she was still looking forward to getting away from the early summer warmth on her trip to Maine, where the salty sea air would cool her down a bit.
She paced on the platform as she waited for the train to arrive, her eyes idly watching as she kicked a stray rock back and forth, until her heart skipped a beat. She instantly knew it was because she was there. Her heart only behaved like that whenshewas around. Her eyes scanned the crowd briefly until she found her, the beautiful woman from the train, standing on the platform a few feet away, with a bouquet of yellow flowers clenched tightly in her hand.
This was it. This was her moment.
She took a step towards the woman when the train pulled into the station, thebrakes squealing as it came to a slow stop. A crowd of people rushed out of the train as soon as the doors opened and in the hustle-and-bustle of the station, Emma lost the woman in the swarm of people. She boarded the train as soon as the crowd thinned and took her usual seat, searching frantically for the woman, eventually finding her seated with her eyes already closed across the train car. She looked tired, even more than usual. She wondered if the woman was alright, and if there was anything she could do to help. She knew absolutely nothing about this woman, and yet she was ready to donate a kidney to save her if she needed one.
As usual, she stared at the woman the entire ride, and she couldn't help but notice a small, sad smile spread across the woman's face as she slept. Emma realized, in the entire time she had essentially been stalking this woman, she had never seen her smile. Her face always looked so sad that it broke Emma's heart whenever she thought about it. She tried to look away, to give the woman a little privacy on the busy train, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't take her eyes off the woman. As intrigued with the mysterious woman as she was, she was starting to feel like a stalker. Which was why, when she lost her at the station in Storybrooke, she didn't go searching for her. Instead, she made her way to the inn slowly, before embarking upon her usual trip around town, all the while hoping in the back of her head that she would accidentally see the woman.
She walked past the lovely blue home and stared up at the windows. For some reason she pictured a little boy with light brown hair staring out a window on the second floor, watching for signs of Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve when he should have been sleeping. She waited for the thought to pass before she started to walk away, unaware that tears were running down her cheeks. As she passed the cemetery, something compelled her to walk inside.
I'm not actually stalking her if I'm not purposely looking for her…right?she thought as she passed the first row of gravestones. The cemetery was calm as she walked slowly, reading the faded names on each grave she encountered.
Suddenly, her head shot up as if she no longer controlled it, to see the mysterious woman from the train, walking up to a gravestone a few yards away. It looked fairly new compared to those around it, the engraving barely faded at all. The woman paused for a moment before sitting in front of the grave, gently placing the yellow flowers in front of it. Emma watched her for a few moments as she wept softly, her fingers gently tracing the name engraved on the stone. There was no doubt about it, the woman had lost someone very close to her. Giving the woman her privacy, Emma left the graveyard and made her way to the diner. She briefly considered waiting for the woman outside the cemetery, but she quickly decided against it. She was clearly upset, and it would be inappropriate to approach her when she's feeling so low.
She sat at her usual booth in the diner and commenced her people watching, looking around at the usuals while they ate and conversed, as the sound of laughter filled the small room. The bell above the door rang, and Emma assumed it was the waitress starting her shift, when a nervous flutter ran through her stomach. It wasn't the waitress. Instead, it was the woman from the train, with a fake smile plastered on her do I know that she's faking that smile?Emma wondered, as she watched the woman make eye contact with someone behind the counter before taking a seat in a booth a few feet away from her, sitting so she was facing Emma, just like on the train.
She had no idea when the tall brunette waitress – who was now sporting a bright red streak in her long black hair – made it to work for the night, but suddenly she was standing next to the woman from the train, smiling down at her with nothing but sympathy spread across her face. The two talked for a few moments, the look of sadness never leaving either of their faces, until the conversation ended with a soft pat on the woman's shoulder before the waitress ran off to prepare the woman's dinner order.
The woman sat alone at the table and stared at the bottle of ketchup in front of her, as if she were memorizing its ingredients. People began to approach her as she waited for her food, each of them giving their condolences as they passed. Emma couldn't hear what they were saying, yet somehow she knew they were giving her words of encouragement. The woman's loss must have been so recent that people were still grieving the deceased. She watched as the woman entertained wave after wave of condolences and well wishes until her meal was delivered by the tall waitress, who sat with her for a few minutes before returning to care for other customers. Clearly the two knew each other and were old friends, based on the way they interacted with one another. The woman even seemed to lower her mask when the waitress was around. Emma had never been so jealous of a stranger than she was just then, because the waitress was able to speak to the woman, and she wasn't.
She ate quietly and delicately, until she reached the end of her grilled cheese sandwich. She looked up, and Emma could have sworn she looked right at her, right into her soul. She gazed into the woman's bright brown eyes as a genuine smile spread across her face a few moments before she took the last bite of her sandwich, wiping the grease off her mouth with a thin paper napkin. Even eating a greasy grilled cheese sandwich, the woman looked as elegant as a queen. "My queen…" she whispered, willing her lungs to fill with air.
Emma's heart stopped completely as she stared at the woman, who somehow looked even more beautiful than before. Emma didn't dare blink as she watched the woman hand the tall waitress money for her meal and exchange a quick hug before leaving the diner. Emma sprang into action.
This was it. This was her chance at meeting her.
She ran out of the restaurant and into the warm June evening, but the woman had already disappeared into the night. She cursed loudly as she continued to her final stop before calling it a night. But not even sitting at her favorite spot on the docks, with her favorite hot chocolate could make her feel better about the massive missed opportunity. She went back to the inn early that night, eager for the day to be over so she could see the woman on the train back to Boston the next day.
She settled in bed and listened to the comforting sounds of the woman moving around until her room fell silent as well. She started to drift off to sleep when the undeniable sound of weeping could be heard from the room next door. She listened for a second, realizing that the headboard of her bed shared the same wall as the headboard of the woman's bed. She turned and stared at the wall, as if she could somehow see through it and into the woman's room.
More sobbing broke the silence. Emma's heart shattered when she realized the woman was crying. She knew she should leave her alone. She knew she had no right to interfere with the woman's life. She knew they were strangers, who happened to catch the same two trains once a month. But she also knew she couldn't sit back while the woman was in pain.
Her body went into autopilot and suddenly she was standing in front of the woman's door in her pajamas. She knocked softly, not wanting to scare the woman. "I'm fine…" the woman said through the door, allowing Emma to hear her voice for the first time. She didn't sound angry at Emma intrusion, which helped to assuage her guilt at interfering.
"I'm right next door if you need anything," Emma said without thinking, only to be met with silence. She took it as a sign and returned to her room, closing the door softly behind her. She crawled back into bed just as the crying continued on the other side of the wall. Every fiber of her being wanted to rush next door and hold the woman in her arms. But she couldn't. It wasn't her place. Instead, she laid in bed and listened to the woman cry, while the sound of her voice repeated through her mind.
I could fall in love with that voice…she thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep.