Midnight Wonders

2.1.4. The Station in the Greenwood

It was a good thing, he thought, that his parents had given Luc and Cora such names. They were uncommon enough that if Luc called out his sister's name into a crowd she might still be the only one to turn her head. If Cora called out his name, perhaps another would look around, but Cora would have found him already. She always did.

His only grievance with his own name was that it sounded rather...empty. Luc Long, two syllables strung together with a flick of the tongue, nothing in between to smooth the transition. Cora Long was a name that could be sung in a slurred operatic breath, whereas Luc's name sounded like the uneven landings of two feet slipping on the stairs. There had to be something more, he thought. But his parents had left merely a space between his first and last name. It was not even a space large enough for anything else to squeeze in. It was easy to miss; that must have been what made it so oft tripped over.

If he ever had children, he would be very careful with their names. He would say it aloud to himself, ten times at least, and listen to the way it echoed in a quiet space. He would consider a middle name, in case the first one ever wore away. And he would consider a last name that was not his own.

He wondered if Mr. Jacobs had ever thought about it, especially having a daughter. Perhaps she would grow up into the shape of a woman that was expected of her, and she would marry and have children because what else was there to do in life, but the children wouldn't have her name because she would have given hers away to a man she hoped loved her. Luc wondered if Mr. Jacobs ever thought about how his name would end. Or perhaps he thought about the other end of the line, where it had begun. It must have come from his father, and his father before him, and his father before him, and with a name like Jacobs it might have stayed unchanged for all those generations.

He wondered if those men who had lived so long ago thought about how far their names might go. Perhaps Luc's father had considered it, and his father before him, and his father before him. They might have all been staring at him as he sat there alone at that bus station with their expecting eyes. But there was no way to tell them that the river they had poured their blood into might have run its course. He didn't know how to tell himself that he would have to bleed to keep it flowing.

Luc checked the time. He had been waiting at the station for ten minutes. It really did feel longer waiting. But every day felt long when he was alone. He thought he might have lost something once, and he kept waiting for it to come back, but if he had lost anything it would have been much too long ago that he could not even remember, and if he could not even remember, had it ever been that important? It was rather unbecoming to expect something to return when it had not been loved enough to remember, and he thought he should stop waiting, but it was difficult to stop when he didn't know what he was waiting for.

The bus arrived. He nodded at the bus driver as he got on board, and he sat towards the front where he could see out the window to the hills.

He looked to his right and the woman was there.

"Good afternoon," she said, and smiled.

"Good afternoon," he said. She had been there all along. Of course she had. His mind was muddy and his memory was the pit. He really had to go to bed earlier. "I'm sorry about this morning."

She shook her head, still smiling. "It's all right."

Luc was relieved that she was unbothered. He remembered that she had greeted him first, anyway, and he should have known that she was unbothered without having to ask and let her know that he was worried that she had been bothered.

The woman took out her phone and tapped away. Luc looked out the window. The hills rolled by.

The bus stopped at Luc's station. He looked to his right. The woman had already gotten off. Luc collected his things and exited the bus, thanking the driver. He walked the rest of the way home, finding his keys in his pocket.

The house was bright and warm and empty. Luc dropped his bag onto the couch and went to Cora's room. She was sleeping in a mound beneath the blankets. The bowl of cereal was empty on the table next to the bed. Luc took it out to the kitchen and washed it, then went back to Cora to wake her for her own wash. Afterwards, he let her go back to sleep and didn't wake her again until dinner.

"I went somewhere," she said as Luc put her dinner on the bedside table.

"You did?"

"I went up into the hills."

"How were they?"

"Very green."

Luc nodded. "It's springtime."

"Already?" Cora said, and frowned. "Oh. I slept through winter."

"Just like a bear," he said.

Cora managed a weary laugh. "I'll wake up more now that the sun's out."

"Of course you will," he said, but the seasons had never made a difference before.

"Can you go up to the green hill and tell the lady there to stop running after me?" Cora said.

Luc looked at her. "Hm?"

"It's so tiring," she said, "having to run away from her."

Luc patted her on the head. "Sure," he said. "I'll make sure she stays away from you."

Cora ate her dinner and went back to bed. Luc finished his dinner alone in the kitchen. He did the dishes and brushed his teeth and tidied the house and sat alone on the couch and read his book while the television ran in the background so it didn't quite sound so empty. And then the lights were out and the windows were shut and the curtains drawn and he went to bed alone. His bed had space for another person, and he couldn't remember why he had decided to invest in a queen-sized bed when he did not stretch out much in his sleep and he was the only one who was ever going to be in that bed.

Then he was asleep, and when he woke he was standing.

He was standing at a station. It was not his bus station. It was surrounded by trees and green hills and there was only a single bench and the bus sign.

He was standing on a path. He looked behind him, and the road was there, bordered by foliage and trees. He looked in front of him, and the path went on for a ways until it disappeared. There was a hill at the end of it.

Someone was laughing. Someone was chattering. It was an echo between the rustling of the trees.

Luc turned around and walked back home.