The Stranger on the Train

Chapter 1: Dolphins

Pov y/n 

The rattling of the train is even as I walk through the train compartments to find a free seat.
Who would have thought that the train to New York would be this full?
Well, I suppose I could have guessed that but still, I expected a little less people to be on this train.

After leaving another wagon behind, I finally reach one that doesn't seem to overflow with people. I push my suitcase in the space with the other ones and go to find a seat. Since my backpack is quite big and full, I'd prefer two seats to put my backpack down and still have freedom to move.

Close to the end I see two empty seats in a booth. I sigh internally, glad to finally have found a seat. There are four seats in the booth, two on each side and they face each other with a table in between.

A blonde woman and a little girl sit on the other two seats. The woman kindly smiles at me when I sit down in my seat and I return the smile. The little girl doesn't seem to be bothered by my arrival and continues to look out the window.
The woman shortly looks over to, what I assume, is her daughter before continuing to read her book. I set my backpack in the seat next to me and lean back, my eyes following the landscape that flies by.

Finally, I'm on my way to New York. I don't quite know what I will do there but that's something I will figure out. My priority was to get out of the small town where I grew up in. I needed an escape and some time to myself. My expectations for this journey aren't high, I have nothing specific planed, I just want to live my life, feel free and find myself.

We pass a flower field and I smile at all the colors. In the corner of my eye, I can see the little girl's eyes grow bigger and she jumps in her seat excitedly.

"Look Mommy, pretty flowers." She squeals and points outside. Her mother looks out the window and smiles, a hand brushing through the girl's hair.
"Yes, they are really beautiful and colorful, Rosie." She answers and her daughter smiles up at her before turning back to look at the flowers.

I keep my eyes on the outside world and have to hide the smile that wants to form on my lips at the cute interaction. To be honest, I didn't expect the woman's voice to be slight raspy but it has a nice ring to it.

When the flower fields end, the little girl pouts adorably but continues to watch the landscape. I do so as well and for a long while there is nothing heard except the train and some fainted voices from other passengers.

When I have looked at the view enough, I open my backpack to pull out a book. I bought it at the train station before the train arrived and am looking forward to read it. It's a book about dolphins and the different species in comparison around the world. There's probably not a lot in this book that I don't already know since I studied marine biology with a degree but never finished my doctor title. I get lost in the book and am surprised that there are a few things in it that I didn't know yet.

The little girl seems to be bored by the view and turns to look at her mother.
"Mommy I'm bored." She sulks and her mother puts the book down, putting the bookmark in between the pages, her full attention on her daughter now.

"Okay, what do you want to do? We have some books, crayons, toys." The woman lists of and the girl thinks about it for a few seconds.
"Can you read me a book?" She asks, not sulking anymore.
"Of course, sweetheart."

The woman grabs a backpack from under her seat and places it on her lap to look into it. While she looks in the backpack, the girl's attention goes to the book I'm reading. She looks at it and goes to say something when her mother lays out three books in front of her, leaving the choice to her daughter.

She thinks about it for a few seconds before she picks a book and the blonde woman puts the others back in her backpack.

"Look, Mommy, the woman is also reading a book about dolphins." The girl says and points to my book. I can't help it but to smile and lower my book to look into the shining blue eyes of the girl.

"I am. Do you like dolphins?" I ask kindly and the girls nods and her blonde hair bounces around her face.
"I do, they are very pretty. Look, this is my book." She says proudly and holds up the picture book with a dolphin on the cover. I nod with a smile.

"I see, seems like a very nice book." I encourage the girl and her eyes sparkle with joy at our conversation.

"It is one of my favorites. There is this dolphin." She points to the one on the cover and I put my book down, giving her my full attention.
"He looks different than the other dolphins around him. He wonders why he is different and doesn't feel like he fits in. But then the family swims around the ocean and they meet a lot of different fish that are in all the colors of the rainbow. And then they even meet other dolphins and he sees that they look just like him and that he isn't an outsider. The two family become friends and swim and play around the ocean together. And on their journey, they meet a lot of new friends that travel with them." She tells me and after she finishes, she has to take a few breaths because she talked so fast.

I smile at her cuteness.
"That sounds amazing." I say enthusiastically and the girl nods in agreement.
"It's a really beautiful dolphin and at first he thinks it's unusual to look different but he finds others that are just like him." She tells me again and I smile at how excited she is about her book.

"Yeah, there are a lot of different species of dolphins." I agree. The girl nods and points at my book.
"That one is different than the ones in my book." She observes and my smile grows at how attentive she is.

"Yes, this is a white-snouted dolphin." I explain and watch as the girl thinks about my words. Her mother nods and looks at me with a thankful smile. I give her a short nod to tell her it's okay. Her daughter is very cute and it's nice to talk to her, especially since she seems interested in this topic.

"Do you know which ones are the ones in my book?" She asks and pushes her book closer to me. I open it and turn through the pages to see which dolphins are in there before I nod.

"This one." I point to the one I'm talking about. "Is the most popular one, it's a bottlenose dolphin and this one is a blue white dolphin."
The girl thinks about that for a while, looking back at the book.

"Wow, that's amazing. How do you know this?" The blonde woman asks impressed and I smile at her.
"I studied marine biology." I explain and she purses her lips while nodding, still impressed.

"Is your book also about a dolphin that's different?" The little girl asks after she finished to look at the ones in her book. I think about it for a second and tilt my head from one side to the other.

"Somehow yes. But different than in your book. My book is about all the dolphins that are known so far and how they get their food." I summarize and the girl's eyes grow even wider in excitement.

"Has it pictures?" She asks and leans a little over the table to look at my book. I smile and hand her the book, showing her it's okay to look into it. She grins at me in thanks and carefully looks through the book. There are a few pictures but not a lot. She stops to look at them and her eyes fly over the pages that don't have pictures. When she's done, she gives it back to me.

"There are a lot of pretty ones in there but a few look strange." She tells me and I chuckle a bit.

"That's because they developed different through evolution and therefore look different than most of the dolphins we know from movies or books." I explain and the girl hums in acknowledgement.

Her mother tugs some hair behind her ear.
"What do we say when someone was nice to us, Rosie?" She asks with a soft voice and the girl smiles up at me.

"Thank you." She says with a toothy grin and I smile back. Her mom ruffles her hair a little and kisses it afterwards.
"You're welcome." I reply and smile when the girl looks up at her mother happily. 

A/n: That's the first chapter of this book. I already have more written but I want to finish my other book first, before  I upload here regularly.
So, in around two weeks there should be the next update on this book. I just wanted to upload the first chapter though, to maybe get some feedback on this story. Feel free to comment your opinion :D 

Thanks for reading and love to you all <3