Travel · Original fiction
At eleven, the station display stopped listing destinations. The first row read: SOMEWHERE YOU HAVE BEEN AVOIDING. The second read: A PLACE YOU MISS. Mara checked the printed timetable in her pocket. Her train was still due at eleven twelve.
“Is it broken?” she asked the man sweeping beside the ticket office. He looked up. “Usually it just says delayed.”
Mara thought of the friend whose letter she had meant to answer. Then of the room where a painting waited under a cloth. Neither place required a train.
The display flickered. The familiar names returned. Her platform appeared, and people began moving with the certainty of people who have been given a number.
On the journey, Mara wrote two sentences on the back of the timetable. She did not know whether the display had malfunctioned or whether someone was having a joke. She knew what she would do when she got home.
Take a moment
Which destination did Mara choose without changing trains?