Emma

Chapter 2

     James stood outside on the train station platform waiting, and waiting for her to arrive. It felt like hours that he had been standing in the dimly lit station, and felt like years since he had held her hand or kissed her soft cheek, and he couldn't wait to see her steel blue eyes again.  To get lost in the pool of blue and specks of hazel. To feel safe and warm in her embrace.  He has always wanted to be the one who protected her, but under the unusual circumstances she's in, James knows she can handle herself. A man no more than forty years old steps off the train holding a little girl's hand. Her brown hair flips around her face and she holds a doll in her left arm, she glances over at James and he gives her a small smile and nod, and she herself does the same. Distracted she began to fall on the curb near James. The father grabs her by the arm before she fell telling her to watch where she's going. She gives him a nod and "Yes dad" and their off inside the train station. he never saw that little girl again. She reminded him of what he imagined Emma to have looked like when she was her age. As another train stops and goes and another taking its place, hours go by and still no sign of Emma. in his peripheral vision he sees a shadow of brown hair near his left side. As he moves toward what he thinks to be Emma he notices it's none other than an average brown haired teenager running over to her group of friends probably all coming home from camp. At 8:00 the last train arrived at the station. Now having been waiting there for nine hours, he stands up hoping and praying that he will see Emma smile coming out that train door. The last person exits the train and in seconds it speeds off down the track away from James, and away from the station. His heart felt heavy in his chest, his head a dull ache began to form not knowing if Emma was ever coming back to him. He stands alone, or at least he thinks he's alone when he feels a light tap on his shoulder. With his last shred of hope he turns around only to find a man in his early thirties standing there with a leather bound journal under his arm.

"Are you James? I've been wandering about this whole station looking for a James, please tell me it's you"

"Yes, i'm James" He tells him confused as to who this man was. The strange man hands him the leather journal from under his arm, smiles and walks off back into the station. He opens the journal to find all sort of letters addressed to him and had dates that didn't have any meaning to him at all. The first page is dated April 9th, 1637. "Emma" he says aloud to himself. He read the entire entry three times over before shutting it and leaving the train station. He gets into his car, blasts the radio to whatever station it was on, eighties rock, and drove away going nowhere in particular. "How do you know i'll know when the time is right!" his hands hitting against the steering wheel furiously. "Is it today, tomorrow, next week" he slams on the brakes, his car stopping on the side of a dirt road miles away from the center of town. "Why do you always leave me in the dark Emma" James cried and cried on that Friday night. He wanted to go home and sleep, eat the creative food Emma would have cooked up for him like always. He wanted to hold her in his arms, feel her heartbeat against his. Lay in bed with her waiting for her to fall asleep first so he knows she's safe. He would even take the nightmares she woke up to rather than not having her at all. Putting it in drive, he heads home. Back to his lonely home they shared. Back to the paintings and photos. Back to the laughs and sleepless nights where they laid awake together. A house that will no longer be a home, now that the light has left it.