They had been there since my grandpa was a kid. A line of railroad tracks that stretched for miles in both directions. A platform was on one side that was clearly where passengers would be waiting to board the train. On the back of the platform was a sign that said, “Cosmos Station”.

No one knows where they came from or who built them. The tracks had appeared there with little fanfare. They were there one day and seemingly having been abandoned decades earlier. My grandfather would take me to the tracks and tell me whatever stories and theories he had about them.

“Reggie,” my grandfather would say, “Have I ever told you the story of my friend Juan?”

“No, don’t believe you have,” I was standing by him on the abandoned platform. Umbrellas in our hands at the ready for when the grey sky would start to pour.

My grandfather smiled, “I thought I did at some point,” he shook his head still smiling.

“Well, Juan and I were old school buddies since well since middle school,” my grandfather took a seat as he began his story and I sat down with him.

“Now, Juan was what you would call a go getter,” my grandfather looked up to the grey clouds deep in thought, “any new idea, activity, or just plain thing that caught his interest, he would go at it with his entire being.”

Grandfather then looked down the right side of the tracks. He had a pensive look to him as he pointed down the way. He nodded his head then turned back to look at me.

“Now, when we were in our junior year of high school, Juan and I came down to the tracks,” he had a quizzical look to him as if what he was about to say stilled puzzled him, “Juan stared down these tracks looking as if something had just occurred to him.”

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“And he looked right at me and asked, ‘Have you ever wondered where these tracks go?’ then looked down the tracks again with a much more serious expression,” my grandfather then started to look down the tracks with as serious an expression.

My grandfather got off the platform and went to stand in the middle of the old tracks. He stared down the way, calm and serious. I got up and stood right next to him.

“Juan had packed up some camping supplies as well as three days’ worth of food,” my grandfather told me with a simple grin. It was here that something occurred to me.

“Wait, shouldn’t the location these tracks go to be known already?” my grandfather looked down at me with a shine in his eyes.

“You would be right, but that wasn’t what Juan meant,” my grandfather turned fully to me, “What he wanted to know was where these tracks originally lead to, for you see when everyone studied these tracks, they noticed indentations in the ground where more tracks used to lay.”

There was a sound of thunder that could be heard in the distance. My grandfather looked to the sky and watched the gray clouds intently. He nodded and got out his umbrella.

“OK, it’s about to rain so we should be heading back inside.”

“But what about your friend?” I wanted to hear the rest of the story, “Did he ever figured out where these tracks lead?”

My grandfather appeared to mull it over. As he did, I started to get my umbrella out as the sound of thunder could be heard roaring closer. My grandfather gave a great sigh and put his hand on my shoulder.

“We don’t have enough time so I will skip to the end for you,” my grandfather’s expression was way more serious and sterner.

“We do not know what he found because he had disappeared,” with those chilling words a flash of lightning bath my grandfather’s face in shadow. I could not believe what I heard. With a more solemn look he started to lead me back home.

“He just disappeared?” it was such a strange twist, “What happened?”

“All I know was that Juan never came back,” my grandfather’s face became even more solemn as he continued, “And the search party that went to look for him only found his abandoned campsite and his notebook,” his face became more quizzical, “And all that was written in the notebook was the phrase ‘I’m taking the train.’,”

My grandfather went silent then and nothing I said could get him to talk again. But that ending was so puzzling that I still think about it to this day. And as we were heading home in the now pouring rain, I thought I heard amongst the thunder the sound of a train coming down the tracks.