Ashes of Yesterday

Chapter 5

"Train's running late," Phalen said.

There was the usual crowd milling about at the ticket window, talking in small groups or sitting quietly on benches reading magazines and newspapers. The sun shot shafts of golden light through the station from the high windows above. The people populating the building looked like tiny ants scurrying to and fro in the large open area. Almost everyone walked with a short, quick step. There were places to go and people to meet.

"The scowl on your face tells me that the train's tardiness is not the only thing that's troubling you," Flix said.

"Yeah," Phalen said. "Lillian was a no-show."

"I'm sorry," Flix said. "But maybe you're better off, you know. Cut your losses, now."

"Yeah," Phalen said, "I've been thinking about what you said. Guess it was foolish of me to assume we could pick up right where we left off. Lillian's someone in my past. I understand that, now. Better just to move on."

"Your mind says one thing, but your heart protests," Flix said.

"Um," Phalen said. "Smoke?"

"Thanks," Flix said.

The two men stood silently smoking, absorbing the din around them. Arrival and departure trains were being called out. Men and women were scurrying by. Children were crying. There was a hum of activity that breathed its own life in the giant enclosure inside the bustling station. Porters were receiving instructions from people readying to leave. Everyone was on the move. Everyone except the two stationary smokers watching the moving crowd. They stood immobile, like an island in a stream of fast-moving water.

"Sorry," a man said, bumping hard into Phalen.

The two men eyed the young man who lugged his heavy suitcase toward a waiting porter.

"I bet you a bottle," Phalen said, "he's a traveling salesman."

"Either that," Flix said, "or this is his first trip away from home. And he's not learned how to pack lightly."

"He does look fresh off the farm, now that you mention it," Phalen said.

Flix stubbed out his butt and deposited it in the bucket filled with sand at his feet.

"Come on," Flix said. "Let's get on board. No sense getting beaten up by the rush that always waits until the last minute."

"Right," Phalen said. "Not as if we're hanging behind for a lot of tearful good-byes."

"Don't fret," Flix said. "You'll find someone. And maybe, this time, she'll be the real deal."

"Who knows? Maybe, I'll fall for a movie star," Phalen said, smiling for the first time that day. "Wouldn't it be nice to have someone like Dorothy Sebastian hanging on my elbow?"

"Nice wouldn't begin to describe that," Flix said.