Charlie's Book of Short Stories

Abandoned [6]

So, I just had my GCSE English Language exam and this was the story I wrote for that. Obviously, it's not a word-for-word copy of the original but I replicated it as best I could with just my memory. 

~~~Start~~~

Through my aching eyes I saw them, huddled together like penguins trying to shield themselves from the relentless cold. It would have been the final time I would be checking that particular train car before we reached the final stop for the night and I could see no one else in this car or any others on the train, very few people chose to travel at this time at night.

Three children, a distinct oldest, middle, and youngest, two teenage boys and a little girl.

"Tickets, please" I said, fighting back a yawn.

The oldest of the three retracted his arm from around the shoulders of the other boy and began searching for the tickets in his pockets. After a short while, the middle child also started to frantically search every crevasse of his jacket.

While the two boys looked, I took the time to observe this unusual band of late-night travellers. The oldest boy was sat in the middle of (What I assume were) his siblings, the next oldest child had, until I arrived, been looking contemplatively out of the window, and the youngest was crying softly into the shoulder of her older brother. All three of them had dark hair that reminded me of the thorns found on the stems of roses and, from what I could tell, they all had cuts and bruises and scars covering their skin.

"I'm so sorry," He said with a shaking voice "they were here in my jacket- I'm sure they were-" Company policy is that anyone without a ticket has to get off at the next stop, and I hadn't hesitated to do this with passengers in the past.

"Please" The middle child pleaded. I looked at each of them in turn, my mind racing through all of my options.

"We just wanted to get away from him!" I heard a tiny female voice say. Glancing down at the youngest child, who's eyes were still dripping with tears, I came to my decision.

Three stops later, the train reached the end of the line in Edinburgh. When we arrived at the platform the storm that we had been driving through stopped and in the small, newly formed crack in the clouds, I saw three stars shining down some much-needed light. Slowly, I dragged myself through the station and through to the car park. It didn't take me long to find my fiancé's car in its usual spot, his awful music screaming out of the open window like a toddler having a tantrum.

We chose to drive back through the centre of the city since there were a lot less people out than there usually was (Perhaps because of the lateness of the hour). Through the small crowds, I caught a glimpse of the three children from the train, I think they saw me because I'm certain I saw the little girl give me a little appreciative wave. They were all smiling, thankful that they had made it to the city because a ticket collector was 'too tired to remember to check their car'.

I thought about those children a lot throughout the drive home, wondering what they were doing on a one-way train to Edinburgh in the middle of the night all on their own. While my fiancé rambled on and on about how his mother insisted that we push the wedding back a few weeks to June, my mind continued to wander. The more I thought about it, the more I realised how that night was similar to another night twenty years ago:

A young boy, he couldn't have been older than 16, was sat alone on a train, intensely watching the vehicle cut through the Northern countryside out the window. Forced out by his parents, abandoned by his friends and everyone he knew, hoping to ride the train to the end of the world and start again.

Like those children on the train, I had only been successful in starting over again because of the kindness of a stranger that I would never see again. Twenty years ago, a lady had found me on the streets, she gave me some much-needed help; showed me a kindness I thought I had lost the right to.

I'll never forget everything she did for me and that'swhy, while in hindsight I should probably have considered those kids could havebeen lying to get a free ride, I remained convinced I'd done the right thing. Clearly,they were running from something and someone; they were entitled to the same second chance at life that I was given.

~~~End~~~