Destination Havana

2

2

I had ridden a train on occasions but this was by far the longest journey I had ever done. I spent many hours watching the passengers. Initially I felt a sense of freedom, I was alone, far from my home, my people and my family. The train stopped every few minutes. In fact, I think we spent more time stationary than running. In one of these stops, a rather strange young man climbed on board. His hair was black but the sparse beard drawn in his face was of a bright orange colour. His appearance was not the only strangething about him, he also acted inconsistently. He seemed to want to sit down but he kept walking down the narrow aisle of the car. One minute he'd leave the suitcase in a rush, the next minute he'd pick it up quickly and continue walking with it in hand. It was as if he couldn't make up his mind and did not know whether to get off the train or whether to continue the journey. He stopped next to me and I moved aside to make room for him. He tried to put the suitcase in the trunk that was over our heads. He lifted that old trunk which, seemed to weigh a lot, and after several attempts he realised it was too big, so he had to leave it on the floor again. Then he sat down and stared at me.

- You won't happen to go to Malaga? To the flight school? - he blurted hastily looking quite nervous.

- Yes, I have to be there by tomorrow morning.

- Tough luck! The navy would have been a lot better.

- Tough luck?-I said only to shut up immediately. I did not want to slip up but couldn't understand why he was complaining. I, for one, was looking forward going to Malaga. Actually, I had been dreaming about this day since I was fourteen or fifteen years old.

- The aviation has no future, these planes are too flimsy, and a gust of wind can knock them down. The navy has good iron ships that sail around the world.

- Why have you signed up for flight school then?

- I wish I could have chosen, but there was nothing I could do. There were no places left and my father enrolled me here. I just hope I don't have to get into one of those old pots. I don't know, maybe they'll put us in one of them as soon as we arrive and we crash.

- No, don't worry, I have a friend who is just finishing his studies there and he tells me that if you enrol in telecommunications you most likely won't need to fly.

- But I've heard that all students are forced to fly on planes.

- Well you're right: in two or three months they'll give us a ride in one of them, I'm sure your fear of flying will then disappear. Elías became silent for a moment, his face pale - it was clear that flying was not for him.

The landscapes we saw from the train were magnificent. You could literallyspend hours looking out the window without even noticing time going by. In late October the leaves of the trees start to yellow and the landscape becomes tainted with many different colours - red, orange, various shades of green and ochre, just like Van Gogh's paintings. I spent the day talking to my traveling companion. Later, for dinner, we shared the food we had brought - bread, cheese, chorizo and pumpkin sausage. As it got dark and started to rain heavily the windows of the train fogged up completely. To be able to see outside, we had to clean a circle on the windows with our own hands. Wecould then see the villages outside, although some of them had no lighting in the streets. After dinner, between my full stomach and the rattle of the train, I could not keep my eyes open. All passengers were dozing in our seats. I leaned my head on the glass of the window and slept peacefully but waking upbrieflywhen a passenger left the train. As time went by there were less of us on board - not many completed the entire journey and at that hour of the night no one came on the train either.