Lucas Muller was pulled awake from a dream by the sudden jolt of the train. He opened his eyes and looked around, he was sitting in a comfortable couch with no one else beside him. From the window to his left, he saw spars of light coming from the small buildings of a distant city. It was dark outside and the chilly winds of the approaching winter battered against the wall of the train.
He rubbed his eyes and tried, with all the power he have, to remember bits of what he was dreaming. It wasn't as if he could remember it as hard as it tried. Lucas once read in a book that the reason dreams were easily forgotten was that because all of them are just simulation. The mind and body didn't really experienced it, so after waking up dreams past by, like how the mist was unveiled by the sun during morning.
He was staring in the window, thinking of his dream in a half-awake state when he suddenly wondered why he was bording this train. *Or where would it go for that matter.*
As he was about to stand, his feet hit the suitcase lying in his front. And in the midst of the pain that he felt, Lucas suddenly realized what purpose he have on riding this train. It had dawned to him, that last night his parents decided that it would be better for him to stay on his stepbrother's house.
*They're kicking me out after putting him out.* The thought had caused him pleasure, that he couldn't helped but to laugh on his self. Well, Lucas wasn't something to be called a good kid, let alone nice. He was disliked by many. When his mother announced it to him he was sort of dazed to the decision.
The first thing that had come in his mind is: who would be in his right mind would risk taking him? And then his mother announced that it would be her other. The one that she had before she married her new husband and adopt Lucas.
This brother was someone that Lucas had saw some 10 years ago. Now, that he was remembering it, he had also realized that it was also during the approaching winter when this brother was kicked out by their parents. Lucas remembered that they get along fine. *But that day, I swear I saw that he was glaring at me. I didn't much remember about him, if he was a good kid or not or why he was shut out from that house.*
He sighed. Lucas felt like that somehow he know that his actions would lead to this event. He wondered if all those years of picking fights with others was really for this chance to be rid of them. And when they had announced it, indirectly by having him stay at his brother's house, Lucas nor felt sad or happy. Because in his colorful mind he had already imagined every possibility when this day come.
To what reason this brother had for accepting him he didn't know. *Perhaps the money*, he thought bitterly and let his eye settled on the dark chilly night outside the window. Upon touching the glass window he felt a burning coldness—that made him abruptly pulled his hand.
His eyes darted to the passenger on the other side of the train.
It wasn't really him that caught his eyes, it was his very own suitcase. The cold that shocked Lucas made him bumped his feet again on the suitcase and when he looked up, he saw it, the weird guy who's putting his hand on the deadcold glass and immediately pulling it out as if a cat who's testing a water.
Lucas surveyed him. *Hmm, gray jacket, a beanie in his head and a small case... very normal.*
Lucas concluded that this guy was just a normal one. Too normal that he started to felt sorry for him. For Lucas, he was the sort of guy who would have been easily forgotten by his classmates or by anyone for that matter. Though his demeanor is kind of weird. He nodded, *perhaps they would remember him as the guy who likes to test the window during winter.*
---
Some meters away from Lucas, Josef Wagner was indeed testing the window on his left side. Gruesome it might be, but Josef wanted to know if he stick his hand in the glass window for a long time, would it be enough to get him a frostbite that would peel his palm. To no avail, he was doing it for almost two hours. He was kind of disappointed that his skin doesn't peel off.
A laugh reverberated on the other side of the train where a passenger was sitting alone. *It was the boy with a violin.* He darted his eyes to him, his blond-dyed hair fell onto his eyes as his body shakes on his own laugh. Looking at him earlier while he was sleeping made him concluded that he was a soft boy who loves music and was very passionate about it. But hearing him laugh like a devil made him changed his mind about him.
Josef decided to give up and just play on his phone. He get it on the pocket of his jacket and immediately became engrossed at play.
The sun was already climbing the distant mountains when he got bored. He checked on his watched, and now that he was already near his destination, a sudden nervousness crept into him.
He asked to his self if this was real, that after some years of not meeting much of his father, he was now already going to where he lived. Together with his other son and daughter. Josef didn't much now about them. That family was from the second wife of his father.
On the day he received a call, he couldn't help but to feel a pang of irritation and annoyance. Because truth be told, Josef had always dream of this event when he was a kid. Well until he realized that some dreams are just too impossible too reach.
*If hadnt Grandma Nita died would he decided to get me?*
Those thoughts roamed around his minds for months after he received a call from his father, asking if he wanted to live together with his house.
The first thing that had come from his mind was: *why did you just call I've been living all alone in this house for almost five months.*
Modest as he was, the first thing Josef asked if it was okay.
The other line became silent, that Josef swore he could hear the sound of a disdainful grunting on the other line.
"Sorry, I've got a customer... yes, I want you here. It would be much more convenient to your part. What do you say?"
*Convenient on my part, but what about on you?*
He replied yes. Josef was determined to have a company. Well, Josef wasnt much of a chatty person in his school, and people was kind of wary on him. Ang his silent had creep them out. Even on the day that his guardian died, there are just few of his classmates who visited him. He guess, that he wasn't really that remarkable.
Soon after the funeral he learned the meaning of loneliness. It was on the small things that he remember and misses. Like how each morning his Grandma Nita would wish him a good day and how she would asked later after he come home about his day. She would listen, even if Josef was so bored talking about it. Or when they're watching a show or listening to a music and suddenly Grandma Nita would launch into a storytelling of her life. To which Josef didn't pay much attention. Those things where he was sad for, and might as well yearned for.
He would give everything just to have a company.
Josef remembered out of desperation, he once go to a street and waited for someone to approach him. She asked Josef if he needed company to which he replied yes but when he say that he only wanted someone to talk, the girl creeped out and cursed at him for being such a creep. Josef was determined not to try that reckless decision ever again. His father's offer to live with him was like a savior. And Josef was desperate to be saved.
The train pulled to a stop, a voice was played on the speakers that reminded the passengers about their belongings. Josef picked his suitcase and move out immediately. The violin boy gave way for him. But from his back he could feel his stares, he looked back and caught sight of the boy who's observing him. There was a bit annoyance on the way he looked to him. Much like how a scientist would look into a lab rat. He was pitying him. He glrared and picked his pace.
Few meters from the door of the train, he stopped and blow on his gloves. Mist out of his breath hovered around him. Josef picked up his case and slowly headed towards the stair. As he go further and further from the station, voices of chattering people became louder. All around him he saw all sorts of passengers, some workers and some students on their way for their advanced study. From the glass door of the station, Josef saw his father, with his knitted brows looking at his watch, beside him stood a figure in thick black jacket. He paid him no more heed as his father approached him and snatched his belongings.
"How was the trip?" he said with a smile.
"It was fine." and added in his mind *And hope all the rest would be too.*