Longboard station

Longboard Station


It stands alone, waiting. It quietly watches the rusted metal bars lying in front of her. She listens, hearing the sparrows singing their first song, and the traffic behind her picking up its beat, getting faster as each minute passed. With every gust of wind grey paint falls off her once beautiful archway. Thus, the words train station, slowly fade away. The grey bricked beams supporting it’s roof are nearly as black as its tar-sealed floor. And its roof leaks so much not even the birds nest there anymore. Small lakes are formed amongst the broken glass and rubbish that has been left to rot on its platform. Its car park is desolate, with the exception of twin circular marks that boy racers have left behind from their previous visits.

The bald tyres on the front of the old red Kingswood slide through the gravel as

Shelly, Stuart and Simon pull up outside the LongBoard train station. Simon’s door is open before the gravel had stopped moving. “We’re here, we’re here!” He shouts as he leaps from the car and falls into a dark brown puddle of water, ruining his sneakers. His smile is turned upside down, but only for a brief while. He shakes himself off and runs to the boot of the car.

“Ah come on guys! Hurry up; I don’t want to miss the train.”

“Throw us the keys will ya Uncle Stu.” yells Simon.

Stuart, sitting behind the steering wheel, leans over the bench seat and looks at Shelley on the backseat. With a quick flick of his head he slides his sunglasses down his nose just far enough for his dark brown eyes to peer out over their silver rims.

“See ya in few weeks then babe”.

“Don’t forget to tell you’re Aunty I say hi .” he says to Shelly as she slowly pushes the heavy door open.

Shelly pauses. Her long blonde hair hides her face as she allows her eyes to meet his. She swallows, then sets her feet on the gravel outside.

Stuart follows. He leans over the roof of the Kingswood and throws the keys at Simon. They leave a dent in Simon’s jacket.

“What’s up with you?” Simon asks.

“Nothing boy, just get your shit out of my boot so I can get out of this dump.” replies Stuart.

Simon and Shelly take their backpacks out of the boot. They have hardly moved when Stuart revs up the Kingswood and slides the gear stick into first. He lets out the clutch when the engine screams at the top of her lungs, thus making the words; “eat my dust” a reality for Simon and Shelley.

From the haze of dust, Simon and Shelley emerge.

“What was up with him?” asks Simon.

“Family shit, you’re too young too understand.” Replies Shelley.

“Clean yourself up, you’re not sitting beside me looking that dirty!”

“What! Have you looked in the mirror lately!” laughs Simon as he runs off.

Shelley turns a bright red. “You wait, you just wait.” She says.

They head towards the long single storied grey building. Simon is just a few steps ahead of Shelley. His head is twitching, much like a puppy in deep sleep. He looks around, east to west, north to south, left to right, up and down, just about everywhere he can he looks. Nothing moves that he doesn’t see. When they get up to the train station platform he watches a procession of ants marching from one crack in the concrete to the next one until the last ant disappears.

Meanwhile, Shelly tiptoes around all the rubbish on the platform. She carefully places her back pack on the ground and pulls out her favourite book and starts to read quietly.

However, it isn’t long before she becomes aware of a mountainous red pimple, with a capping of snow looming over her.

“Why don’t you pop that thing?” Shelly says to Simon, her eyes stay fixed on the page.

“How far away is the train?” Simon responds.

“It’ll be even further away if you keep on asking!” snaps Shelly.

A small tear rests in the corner of Simon’s right eye.

“Um, Simon, why don’t you go and get us a coffee aye? The time might pass by quickly that way.” She says, this time more calmly.

Simon’s feet can’t move any quicker without breaking into a Jonah like run. He turns into the café, which has a small forecourt in front of it. But, the forecourt looks more like a forest of weeds. Simon finds a path through the weeds and when he gets to the entrance of the café, he looks up and sees that vandals have changed the ‘a’ and ‘e’ in ‘cafe to ‘o’ and ‘i’ , and had placed an ‘n’ at the end of it, So café is now a badly spelt coffin.

Like a puppy to his master, Simon dutifully returns to Shelly and gently places the coffee by her side. But he does not sit; instead he stands near the tracks. He is like a cougar waiting to pounce.

“Why don’t you sit down?” said Shelley to Simon, as she gives up any attempts to get any further in her book.

“Nah, I can’t, the trains not far away now anyway!”

Shelley’s eyes roll, “It’s still ten minutes away!”

“But…. Ah don’t worry! You wouldn’t understand.”

“Is this your first time on a train?”

Simon pauses, his is voice now no louder then a cat’s purr, replies:

“Ah, yes.”

“Man, mum must have given you a sheltered life”. Shelley says quietly to herself.

“What, what did you say?” asks Simon

“Ah….. It’s long and boring, did you bring a book? I’ve done this trip before and its nothing to write home about.” say’s Shelley, with a drawn out yawn.

“Huh? Nah, I’ll get by on the scenery.” replies Simon, energetically.

Shelley looks at Simon and smiles, “Hey, do you thing I could get some of that?”

“Some of what?” quizzes Simon.

Shelley says nothing, she just grins.

Simon turns and faces Shelley.

“Some of what?” Repeats Simon.

“What are you grinning at?” He asks.

But before Shelley can reply, the smell of burnt charcoal fills the air, and the ground starts to rumble as a whistle blows and the passenger train pulls into the station. And the station becomes like a sales yard at the end of spring, with all the sheep waiting to be loaded onto the trucks.

Simon leaps into the air, “It’s here, it’s here! He screams.

He grabs Shelley with one hand and her backpack with the other, and drags them both to the carriage.

Shelley can’t stop laughing, as she runs along with Simon who leads them onto the train.

“But its only a train!” She says. “Its only a train!”