Daniel left the cafe a little confused but in good spirits. After all, even if she was a little different, that was the longest any girl his age had ever talked to him. Additionally, his train was set to leave soon, he could see it across the station and he began to walk towards it with a interesting blend of apprehension, excitement, and cold fear. His belongings would seem light as a feather one moment and heavy as a boulder the next. His heart was beating in his throat and his hands sweated. Despite his tea his throat parched more and more as he got closer to the train. Crowds whizzed around him making him feel almost like he was at a standstill, the teeming masses always moved, not pausing, not stopping. As they spun around him so began the world, his head swam in dizziness. The words on a sign reading train 252 twisted and writhed together like eels before rearranging into the phrase: "The journey, not the goal." He looked at the ceiling and watched with brows knitted as it fell down onto of him. That's funny, he thought before it crashed on top of him crushing his body.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
When he came to only the sky stretched above him, the clouds floating majestically free and drifting slowly to the left. It must be nice to have all that time and nowhere to go. Maybe that's what happened after you died. Your spirit rises from your body and manifests in the sky, to forever float among the endless blue. Those who lead evil lives would be cursed to rain and overcast the beautiful sky as punishment, to always be cursed by those on Earth who wished pleasant weather. You would bring relief when people needed it, and you would never be still over the same patch of Earth twice. Some days you would be wispy, others tall and foreboding, others puffy and happy, but always you would be there. You would drift where the wind took you living with a free spirit few get to experience in their mortal lives. A beautiful cycle would exist between you and the vast seas below. A waltz of giving and receiving that stops for no man, and is as pure as the water it utilizes. For a moment life made sense to him. The world spoke to him as it does once and only once to every person at least once in their lives. The birds, the trees, the earth, the sun cried to him, we're here. We're here and here we shall always be until you decide to join us. It's so nice, so warm.
Come, touch my highest branches, whispered the trees. See how we give so much to the world and expect nothing in return. Learn to become the same way. To be so at peace that you may serve only others but feel completely ecstatic to do so. Let your selfishness leave you.
Come, frolic with us in the sky, chirped the birds. Learn to live with no rules, no tethers holding you back. Learn what it means to be free. to live with no boundaries, to touch the very sky. Let your restraints leave you.
Come, rumbled the earth. See how I stretch out and keep steady. I am moved by no one except myself. I give people ground to stand on and remain forever, never leaving people in doubt. I support and remain as steady as the rock I am made of. Let your undependable ways leave you.
Come, sang the sun. Let my let shine down on you with endless beauty, my rays will cascade among you and bring joy onto the earth. The light will wash away your faults and only your beauty will reflect back onto the eyes of all. Let your imperfections leave you.
Then a man's voice spoke and he forgot it all, possibly only to remember when his reunion with the world became assured.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
"Son, wake up. Son, wake up. Come on buddy, you're going to be all right, it's all going to be okay, you just had a little spill. All right son... come back to me here, come back. That's it... He's waking up everybody, it's all going to be fine."
Daniel's eyes opened slowly. He peered, around stuck in that clichéd situation everyone always talks about after you revive from fainting, where you're surrounding by a circle of people and some chap is looking down on you like the Almighty Himself. He groaned, his head throbbed terribly. Someone handed him a styrofoam cup filled with water. He gulped it down quickly and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
"Are all right son?" Asked a middle aged man in a crisp navy blue uniform and hat. He waved his hat over Daniel's face in an attempt to cool him down.
"What happened?" Daniel asked.
"You just up and collapsed on the ground, fainted for some reason. You sure your feeling okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. How long was I out for?"
"I'd say about twenty-twenty five seconds. Your sure you're going to be okay?" Daniel nodded, "All right here let me help you up." Powerful arms grabbed by the armpits and hoisted him to a standing position. Someone else set his things beside him and he grabbed a hold of his stuff. His first step nearly sent him toppling over again, but he managed to right himself and waved off any help. The rest of the walk over to the train though he felt a little woozy, went off normally. He exhaled audibly and stepped up the stairs and through the railcar doorway. Here goes nothing...
The car was mostly full by now, and there were only a few open seats. He recognized faces he'd seen walking through the station as well as Laura chatting animatedly with a boy who looked twice her size.
A tall girl walked past him, "Um, excuse me. Where do I put my things?" He asked her. She looked down at his things and pointed to the luggage racks overhead. "Thank you, I've never really traveled before." She grunted and walked away. Well, all righty then. He managed (not without some difficulty) to stow his things in the wide compartments above before the boy sitting beside him assured him,
"Don't mind her, she's like that with everyone. Here, have a seat." A shaggy haired boy said patting the open seat next to him. "Even I can hardly get more than a couple words out of her. Beautiful singer though, I suppose she saves her voice for that."
"Is she your sister or something?"
"Close enough. My cousin actually. Name's Sammy." He said extending his hand.
"Daniel." He responded putting his hand out in a like manner. Just as he was about to clasp Sammy's hand, he pulled it away and brushed his hair back.
"Psyche!" Sammy said. He laughed until he saw the hurt expression on Daniel's face. "Man, I'm just kidding! Chill out!" He laughed again and grasped his hand firmly and shook before releasing and making a fist and bringing it on top of Daniel's still upright hand. His hand flopped to the armrest and Sammy looked incredulously at him. "Are you kidding? You've never shaken hands with someone your age before have you?" Daniel shook his head no, there had been many firsts today. "Here I'll show you how, you at least have the first part down."
He stretched out his hand again and Daniel cautiously grasped at it. He did not pull away this time. "Good. Now as you pull away grasp the tips of my fingers with yours." He pulled along Sammy's hand until their fingertips met at put up a short while of resistance before breaking apart. "Okay, make a fist and bring it down on top of mine." Daniel brought his hand into a position it wasn't used to going into and brought it down forcefully as Sammy had done to him. Sammy brought his hand above Daniel's still clenched fist and did likewise. He then rammed his fist into Daniel's one more, this time Sammy's knuckles interlocked with his own before pulling away. "There. Basic teenage male hand shake give or take a step or two. Let's try it once more."
Daniel put his hand out and waited until Sammy nearly grabbed it before pulling it away. "Psyche." He said running his hand through his short hair the same way Sammy had.
Sammy covered his hand with his mouth and laughed in amazement through his fingers. "I... I can't believe what just happened! That did not just happen!" He shouted out.
"What didn't just happen?" A girl asked peering over the seat in front of them.
"Danny here just owned me. Danny just owned me bad." Sammy replied.
Danny again, he thought. He supposed he would eventually get used to it. And owned him? What did that mean? He thought better than to ask.
Sammy turned his attention to the girl in the seat ahead of them whowas still staring, "So, what's your name beautiful?"
She scoffed loudly and smiled, "Oh please. You can't be serious."
"Oh, but I am." He told her mock earnestly, " I'm a hopeless romantic. Here, I'll compose a line of poetry just for you." He thought for a moment before reciting, "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee the more I have, for both are infinite." He gazed at her for approval.
She scoffed again, Daniel couldn't understand why, he thought it was rather good, "Nice try William. You think I don't think I read Shakespeare too? How many girls actually buy your bull crap?"
"Thus far?" He counted numbers on his fingers, "Well, none. But I did say I was a hopeless romantic."
"That you can be sure of." She smiled at him again. He smiled back. The conversation left the topic of Shakespeare but by the time they had finished talking Sammy had found her name (Katie), the name of the girl seated next to her (Emma), her age (16), hometown (Dayton), knowledge of her family, her favorite book (The Princess Bride), what art she practiced (flute), among other things. Sammy was... Sammy was smooth, confident. He was most everything Daniel wished he could be when he conversed to girls. There was never a lull in the conversation, he asked all the right questions. He held her eye contact and she his for almost the entire time they were talking.
When she excused her self to use the restroom, Sammy folded his hands behind his head and sighed, exclaiming to Daniel, "Oh yeah. She digs me." Daniel was pretty sure he was just kidding but he certainly had made an impressive first impression.
"How did you, um, do that?" He asked.
"Do what?" Sammy responded, "Talk to her? I opened my mouth and said something ridiculous to grab her attention. Did I think she was going to fall for that piece of crap line? Hell no, in fact if she does fall for a line like that maybe I don't even want to know this girl, but I knew she'd give me a second look, some sort of response. From there it's all about making her feel comfortable talking to you, you know?" Daniel was about to tell him he didn't know but he continued, "Treat her like she's an piece of music."
Daniel couldn't refrain from snorting a bit, "Treat her like music?" are you out of your mind? What in the world is that supposed to mean, he thought.
"It's all about finding the right notes and being able to play them, dude. Every girl is different whether subtly or vastly. It's all about finding the right notes, that's the best advice I can give you." The right notes, Daniel made sure to make a mental note of their conversation. "If you go for a certain subject, watch her face, her hands if you can see them, her eyes especially. If your getting bad signals or to stick with the analogy, the note your playing is out of tune, for God's sake change the subject! Don't ask yes or no questions, they stifle conversations, if you run out of things to say ask 'why?'. That's my favorite question, and..." Sammy paused. What are you doing! and... what? Daniel thought. "Nah man, I can't give away any more. It's something you gotta figure out for yourself. Practice makes perfect."
Daniel waited for a moment but it quickly became clear that line of conversation had been cut. He reluctantly changed the topic. "So where are you from?"
"SoCa." Daniel stared at him quizzically, "Sorry, South Carolina. The coastline."
"That's really far away, why are you going to New York?"
"Why not? I like to travel as much as the next person, meet new people see new things. I'll get to be closer to New York City. Actor's Mecca my man. The teachers are supposed to be really good, so is the school."
"Did you like South Carolina?"
"That's a yes-no question." Sammy rebuked him.
"Sorry. Um what do you like about South Carolina?" Daniel asked trying again.
"Better. That's easy, the weather and the beaches. It's always sunny and warm out, unlike here. What is it outside like 50 degrees? That's what'll kill me about New York. I'm not the right build for cool temperatures, too skinny. And the beaches, beautiful water, beautiful sand, beautiful women. It's all good. And what about you? Where are you from, why are you leaving?"
Daniel gave him nearly the same explanation he had given Laura. Sammy certainly seemed to understand the concept of normalcy better than she had. Suddenly he turned to Daniel and asked him to let him out.
"Why?"
"A test."
"A test?"
"Yeah, Katie is coming back. I'm going to leave and I want you to talk to her. Just have a little conversation. Then I'll be back to see how you did." He saw the nervous look on Daniel's face and put his hand on his shoulder. "Dude, this is something you need to learn how to do. Life gets one hundred times better when you can talk to people without worrying about it. That goes double for women. Good luck!" Then he got up and told Katie something before walking away to the front of the train car. She looked over at him at asked him if she could sit in the now vacant seat. He nodded unsurely. She weaved past his legs and took a seat next to him.
She looked him in his face, he stared back and maintained eye contact like Sammy had. Damn, Sammy hadn't told him how much harder this whole conversation thing was when it was a pretty girl you were talking to and not a fellow boy. And Katie was rather pretty, soft brown eyes, and long brown hair. Short but still rather curvy. Damn.
He felt like the first time he was going to ride a roller coaster and as he had waited in line he was really excited and pumped but once the heavy restraining bar fell over his chest it was the last place he wanted to be. Well staring into those eyes was just like getting pinned down by the bar. Of course the amusement ride never stares back at you expecting you to make the first move.
"Um... hi." He said his eyes falling to the ground. Idiot, don't do that!
"Hi." She responded back.
"So, um how are you doing?"
"Fine. And you?"
"Fine." This was going no where, he could feel her interest leaving the conversation. He was failing his test already!
"Sammy said you had something you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Yeah, he... um, he probably did. But I'm going to come clean with you right away. I have no idea what to say to you right now. My tongue is tied and my stomach is filled with butterflies, and I am absolutely frightened at the prospect of talking to you, because frankly, no one as good looking as you has every sat down and talked with me, much less said hi. You're probably only doing this because Sammy asked you, and I think you're nice and don't really want to waste your time like this, so if you want to go... I'll understand." Talk about stream of conscious, I am nervous he thought. Where did all that come from? he thought.
She didn't leave like he expected her to, instead she sat there and looked at him for a while longer, "You're really scared of talking to me?"
"Terrified." He responded.
"Why?" That word Sammy told him about. It must have been something all the talkers knew about.
"I don't know. I just really wasn't very social back home and you... well that's part of why I came here."
"You came here to meet new people, but when they sit down and talk to you, you get scared. Honestly a change of scenery isn't going to fix anything if you don't learn how to do this." She was right.
Time to change if only for this one conversation. He took a deep breath, "So... why are you going to MarrisOak?"
