Tina liked to walk alongside the tracks where no train ever ran anymore. The world out there was yellow and hot and still, all rocks and open sky, some trees. As she walked out of town the water tower rose on her right, a giant white guardian.
Often on these walks, she encountered strange things.
Once, in the heat, in the noon brightness with the land stretching as dry as a sock all around, as always, she found a long green glob of seaweed lying on the tracks.
She thought it was an animal at first. But it was just seaweed, lying there, dark and glistening on the dusty tracks. It smelled as briny as if it had freshly washed up on shore.
She touched it. It did not look particularly interesting. It looked like a tangled bundle of sodden rags that someone had dyed a filthy color.
Once, she found a chalice, carefully set upright on a flat rock near the tracks. It was made of brilliant crystal that gleamed white in the hot sun but, when inspected closer, held blue and deep purple depths. The inside of the cup was lightly stained with red.
Tina picked it up. It was far too cold in her hand. She shivered and put it down, and as she walked onward she could have sworn she heard fairy music on the air, flutes and delicate drums.
Once, she found a gramophone, an artifact right out of the days of Thomas Edison, lying in pieces under a thorny bush. Once, she found a wrapper from an In-N-Out burger. There were no In-N-Outs anywhere in that part of the country.
Once, she decided to go out when it was raining. It was raining hard, slight spray rising from the tracks—she wore a jacket. It was on that day that she discovered the strangest sight of all: under a tree, a giant severed wing.
It had been white once, the feathers now decaying and turning gray. Any blood had washed into the grass. Stopping and staring, unwilling to approach it, Tina calculated that the wing must be longer than she was tall. After that, she turned and went back home. The sense of horror and hauntedness did not leave her for five days.
Even after that feeling had left, she did not want to return to the tracks. Her excuse was that it had kept raining—week after week with hardly any breaks, it had poured forth on the town since that day. The real reason was that she felt afraid. She began to wonder if she had somehow been intruding, trespassing on a foreigner’s land.
After a month, the rain stopped. The air was hot and clear again. Tina hemmed and hawed but eventually realized she had no excuse. So she went out walking again, filled with anticipation.
The water tower winked in the sun, welcoming her back. The world was a little greener than before. But otherwise, it felt the same.
She walked with quickened pace, inspecting every bush and rock crevice. There, there ahead, was something—something flashing brightly in the sun, propped up against a rock! She ran towards it and picked it up.
It was a hand mirror. Tina had one just like it at home—she’d gotten it from the local thrift shop. With a trembling hand, she raised it to her face, inspecting her reflection. She looked the same as ever, completely ordinary, squinting in the sunlight.
Ko-fi to support: https://ko-fi.com/annabeth13
Thanks for reading, everyone! Subscribe for more! :)
This is my favorite so far! Intriguing! Tightly written. Keep em coming.