Remembering Her Name

Number One

He was squashed, and miserable. The train was more packed than normal. But then again, he didn't usually take the train. His mind fluttered back to the country, where he came from. The hills were green at this time of year, and there was mist that enveloped the mountains in the morning. It gave it a mysterious feel, one that he loved and knew he could not live without. Early morning was the coldest, and even the cows seemed cold in the pastures. Towards the middle of the day it warmed, and the mist lifted, revealing the patchy green of the mountain side, topped with the rock at their very tips. Often, in winter, the rock would be completely obscured by a layer of powdery snow. Occasionally the snow would also fall on the hilly country he knew so well, and he would help his little brothers build snowmen, packing up the snow until their hands went numb and they had to thaw them by the fire while their mother lectured them about not going out with gloves. In spring the flowers bloomed and he helped his sisters sow seeds in the deep brown flower beds, while the rooster crowed all throughout the day. His father often swore that he would ring the bird's neck, but it was just a joke. He loved that rooster as much as the rest of them, and everyone knew that if the rooster was dead the little fluffy yellow chicks they all adored wouldn't be born in the summer that followed.

He was alien to the city and its greyness. He would always question how so many people could fit into such a small place. Half of the city was taken up by massive skyscrapers, reaching up until you couldn't see them. Somewhere in one of those skyscrapers was his aunty's flat, and that was were he was headed for this Christmas. His mother and father and all his sibling had to stay behind to look after the animals, but they had promised him that they would send presents and Skype him with his cousin's computer. They owned one computer between all the eight people in his family. His cousins each owned more than one computer each, small laptops. He thought it greedy that they should have multiple laptops when he had to share one great big clunky computer with eight other people. Not that he used the computer heaps. He was more into reading, things like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Detective stories were his favourite, and he wanted to be a crime writer when he finished school. He greatly admired Agatha Christie, and loved her works.

He scanned the train again. Grey people in their own grey worlds. Half the people were staring out of the windows, and the others couldn't even see the window. Now that there was anything to see. Just the grey, lifeless city with its grey, lifeless people. He enjoyed the country much more, the colours that combined together like watercolour paints, wet on wet. The shocking green of the pastures, rough yellowy rock of the mountain tops, swirling white of the mist... it all went together so well. But here in the city there was grey, grey and more grey. But in the grey of the train's residents, a furry of colour caught his eye. It was a girl, or, as he thought, a goddess. A pale, almost white face, bordered by a wave of glossy jet-black hair. The only colour to be seen on her perfect black and white face was her lips, a smudge of bright painted red that contrasted with her brilliantly pale face. It was a vision of beauty. He admired the girl for a good more many minutes, before she glanced up and saw him. Embarrassed from being caught staring, he started to look away, but she smiled at him. The smile brought a whole new life to the face across the room from him, but kept its beauty. He smiled back, relieved she wasn't mad at him staring at her.

When the doors opened for a station that wasn't his, a flood of people surged out onto the concrete platform. It left the carriage almost empty, a void that once was but now was not. He looked around the once crowded train carriage to see if he could spot the girl, but she was gone. Oh, no she wasn't. She had moved into a different seat, one where she was almost hidden from him by the back of another checked train seat. He stood before the train started moving, knowing that if he tried to walk over to the girl while the train was speeding down the tracks, the lurching movement would make him lose his balance. He would look like an idiot in front of this girl. Luckily his walk over was smooth, and he seated himself next to the girl without looking stupid. She smiled again at him. "I couldn't help noticing you." Those words were his first. "You're the only colour on board this train." He hoped the words were good enough. They seemed to be fine, and the girl laughed. "You're not from the city, are you?" She surveyed him, her eyes going from his head to his feet. "You look like a country boy."