Finally inside the train, Nik found his seat quite easily and settled into it. Opposite him in the compartment sat two men in their fifties, conversing about the present political scenario. One of them was bald and had probably dyed his edges and the other one had a severe face with greying hair and moustache. Both of them were pointing out the inadequacies of the government and badmouthing the politicians of the state, pretty much the norm among the middle-aged Nik guessed. To the side by the window on the other side of the compartment sat a woman in her thirties along with her son who looked like he was around ten or twelve years of age. The woman looked visibly tired with a pale face and slightly unkempt hair of a deep black colour. The kid looked quite chubby with a mop of brown hair and Nik thought the kid was slightly overactive, ‘too many questions and too much jumping around’, he thought, but then again almost all the kids appeared that way to him.
"Hey young man ... Where are you going to?" Asked one of the men attempting to draw Nik into their pointless conversation or so Nik thought.
"I am getting off at the last station Sir" answered Nik in a monotone voice.
"Oh, I am getting off there too " offered the old blading man, “seems like we are from the same town, where do you live young man, what does your father do?”, he followed up. This is the problem with small towns almost everyone knows everyone else and this was especially the case with Alnerwick. And this was exactly what Nik had dreaded about, at least the other man was not too keen on drawing him into their conversation, and fortunately he had an answer ready “I am just going to meet a friend’s acquaintance Sir, you see, my friend asked me to pass on a parcel to him and then I’ll be gone in a few hours, anyway thanks for asking Sir and would you kindly recommend a place for lunch?” Nik asked “Sure, young man, I believe the food at The Winter Jewel is quite good”, Nik knew about that hotel and he thought that the man had a fine taste. Nik thanked him and started looking up his phone, the man looked at Nik expecting him to say something but he just nodded his head and plugged in his earphones. "Young people and their addiction to music" sighed the old man complaining to his companion. But Nik could hear his every word as he wasn't listening to anything. It was just one of his tricks to get under the radar and avoid an unnecessary waste of energy or so he thought.
The train continued it's chugging and the old men their banter. Nik was wondering when they were gonna shut up and sleep. He was sure the woman on the other side was thinking the same made obvious by the scowl on her pale and sharp face as she tried putting her overactive son to bed, but the men continued, either completely clueless or far too engrossed in their discussion on political bigotry. The kid continued pestering his mother with questions about everything inside and outside the train, and at this point Nik couldn’t help but imagine that the lady was seriously regretting having a window seat.
An hour passed and the Ticket Collector arrived. A middle-aged man well into his 40s with a few light wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and a kind smile. All of Nik’s co-passengers showed him their tickets and went back to their respective chores. When Nik showed him his ticket. He found the TC looking at it for a while longer than he thought necessary. "What's wrong?" Asked Nik. The TC smiled at him and said "Son, your coach number on the Ticket is one... you are sitting in coach number eleven", he sounded quite amused. "But how can that be? I remember this coach being the nearest to the engine… logically this should be the first one, right?" Nik asked dumbfounded. "Yeah well... logically yes... But owing to the slight delay and quite a bit of fumbling by the authorities, the coaches were not arranged in a sequence you see... so sorry young man but you'll have to move to the coach number one." He said, managing to sound unforgiving and pitying at the same time.
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"Okay" Nik sighed and got up with his luggage and started moving between he coaches in the dead of the night on the moving train. Contrary to his own expectation he sorts of enjoyed the experience, ‘strangely exciting’, in his own words, walking on the links between bogies on a moving train, for a second he even thought he could brag about this to his friends but the thought was quickly trashed as being childish. After passing through three or four coaches in the same way he came across one with the number one painted out large on its door.
'How did I get to the coach number one so quick; I was just in number eleven right... well the TC did say they weren't arranged in a sequence', thinking so, he approached the seat where he was supposed to sit, the fated seat number sixty-two. But he was taken aback when he saw that his place had already been taken by a woman in her late twenties... and she was deep in sleep, snoring quite happily.
Nik was staring blankly at her and thinking about the next course of action to be taken... At that time suddenly, as if straight from heaven, two men one in his thirties and the other in his sixties, a father-son duo Nik guessed, got up from their slumber, possibly alarmed by the stranger in their compartment staring silently at them in the dead of the night. They looked at Nik and asked what his problem was. Nik explained his problem to them and they immediately started sympathizing with him.
The old man sighed "women are getting out of control these days…they’ve become too daring and uncaring for the law with all the protective laws", he started ranting, ‘a victim of an old nagging wife’, Nik sighed inwardly. The other man couldn't take it anymore and asked the woman to get up... she groggily got up and at the same time by pure chance Nik who was feeling quite embarrassed with all this unsavoury business managed to get a glimpse of the coach number on the dimly lit board of the compartment and alas it read as number four. ' Damn, what is happening with me today... I have to think of something fast ... if the woman turns out to be a real feminazi I'll damned this night ', he thought. With that thought in mind Nik managed to keep his tired façade and quickly said “Thanks old Sir... I'll be right back, I think I need to use the rest room" saying so he turned towards the toilets and hurried away.
As he got into the next compartment ' whew... It's the devil's grace that I escaped' he thought. Finally, after crossing a few more compartments he eventually found his compartment number one and settled his luggage there. Then he looked at his watch and was shocked when he saw there were only 4 more hours for his destination. Most of the night had already passed. 'Ahh well I am not even in the mood for sleep', thinking so he got to the end of the coach and opened the slightly rusty iron door to look out into the nightly mist.
The cold wind assaulted him like a storm, even so, he quite liked what he was feeling and seeing, and so he just stood by the door, gazing into the horizon for the rest of the journey looking at the sun slowly driving away the mist...