Chapter 17: Arrival

It’s a truism of life, that the more eagerly you anticipate an event, the slower time seems to move as you approach it. I’d gained a new appreciation for this aphorism, given recent events, but I was still thankful to see the clock move at all, as we reached the final stretch of our journey, this time with a complete absence of fog. Indeed, the weather was wonderful, giving me a marvellous view of Loch Linnhe as we approached Fort William. I cradled my bag against my chest: the only belongings I’d retained from this journey, as my checked in luggage was surely lost, stranded upon one of the many carriages that vanished along the way, but truth be told, I simply couldn’t bring myself to care.

Finally, after five minutes that felt like hours, this time without magic even needing to be involved, the train was slowing down, steadily shedding speed as it alighted at the station platform, before at last coming to a stop, midway on the platform.

“We are now at Fort William. This is the final stop of the Caledonian Sleeper, calling at Fort William. Please take all of your belongings with you as you leave the train. All change.”

Somehow, hearing that familiar message on the intercom, it finally sank in that this was real. It was ten in the morning, and my train had arrived at long last. It took a remarkable amount of discipline for me to hold on, until the doors were ready to open on their own, rather than forcing them open and taking the thousand Pound fine, but I just about managed to survive the wait. As I stopped out onto the platform, taking my first breath of fresh air in far too long, it was enough to simply luxuriate in the feeling of solid, unmoving earth beneath my feet. My work phone, long forgotten in my bag, vibrated, signalling my return to the embrace of the modern internet; pulling it out to check the notifications, I found a reminder to attend a meeting at 11, and to hurry on to the hotel so we could have pre-drinks before that.

My feet were already moving as I processed the message contents, well trained by years of toiling away in corporate London, until I was through the ticket barriers and came up next to the Lochaber Cafe, and I stopped. I had an epiphany, then and there, surrounded by warm sunlight and the pleasant bitterness of freshly ground coffee. Why bother? I’d just survived, by some contrivance, an entirely magical series of events, and here I was, already thinking about how to return to mundane drudgery. Oh, sure, there were good, logical reasons to continue down that path. A good salary, the prestige of working a highly skilled job in the City, the potential to advance further up the ladder, all of these things have motivated me, ever since I approached my first law firm as a fresh graduate for a nerve-wracking interview.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

But after what I’d just experienced, in all its wonder and horror? I found that I simply didn’t care anymore about such frivolity. Paradoxically, repeating the same time over and over again had reawakened an appreciation for the value of time, and I valued time far too much to waste one more second of it, working a nine to five that I hadn’t truly enjoyed in years. After that, it was a simple sequence of events to follow. As the phone began to ring, showing the name of my line manager, who was undoubtedly calling to check in on one bother or another, I turned the phone off, took half a dozen short steps, and chucked it in the bin. I was the only one on the platform, so it wasn’t as if anyone watched me do it: as far as the world was concerned, I’d managed to lose my phone in transit.

From there, all that was left was to endure a short queue at the cafe, before I had a cappuccino and a fresh croissant in hand, and a table by the corner. I’d had plenty to drink back on-board, but this was the first time I’d been able to truly relax, at least since the first realisation that I was stuck in a time loop. After that, there was always an underlying tension as I attended to my needs, always a thought at the back of my mind of what to do next, but no longer. That was both a simple meal, and the best I’d ever had, and it gave me time to think, and plan my path ahead. Nobody else had come with me, as a cost saving measure, and likewise, I was the one who would approach the office of the local estate agents. I’d booked a hotel room for the week, done it privately with the intent to expense it to the firm later, and that meant nobody knew exactly where I would be staying.

Yes, the more I thought about it, the more appealing it seemed. Pulling out my personal phone, which I hadn’t thrown away, because it had my favourite apps on it, I began looking for a clothes shop. This would have been necessary anyway, as I’d lost all that I packed away, but now my priorities on apparel had shifted. No more stuffy suits and ties, no, I was looking for casual shirts, golf trousers and even a pair of swimming trunks. After all, Fort William may have had its share of properties on the market, but it was still first and foremost a coastal town, and after everything that it had taken to arrive? I figured I deserved a long vacation.

Tucking my phone away and shouldering my bag once more, I walked out of the station with my head held high, ignoring the waiting taxi ranks in favour of a slow, meandering stroll towards my appointed hotel. The shop was on the way, so I could kill even two birds with one stone. How wonderful.