On the Train

After returning to his seat, Richard was dreaming also. He was walking down the street when a herd of people suddenly approached him, all of them calling to him- "Richard!! Richard!! How you doing, Richard!!" He smiled in his dream. He felt a sudden itch in his back. He started taking all his clothes off, and suddenly became very embarrassed to find that he was covered in feathers. He looked in shock at the crowd, and suddenly saw that they too were covered in feathers. The itch on his back were a pair of bright red wings, soft and wide, and strong. He found himself lifting off the ground, waving goodbye to all the well-wishing crowds of people. It reminded him of Dorothy waving goodbye to the crowds of people in Oz, and suddenly he was the wizard standing beside Fanguella in the hot air balloon, both of them waving and waving, until she turned to him, eyes wide, and said, "No Richard I can’t go with you." Then she jumped out of the balloon. Looking up sadly as he floated higher and higher away” She called to him "I can't leave it behind." He pictured her little dog Toto, and somehow, under her arm, he saw a cat. He was getting more and more frantic, calling after her, but she was too far, a fog was setting in, he could only see her far off outline through the mist, standing watching as he floated farther and farther away. Just when he was getting more and more desperate, to get back down, talk some sense into her, feeling sure that she had somehow made some grave mistake, he remembered his wings, and felt a wave of relief and hope. Richard awoke. He gathered his few belongings, edged out of his seat and turned onto the aisle walking back to where Fanguella had been sitting. Fanguella meantime had awakened before Richard. She felt more relaxed, less anxious, and she felt the relief of mental numbness. The fat man across the aisle leaned over and said something about "her boyfriend" in a thick French accent, and motioned to the aisle behind them, smiling. Boyfriend, and pointing towards the washroom? Disgusting man had been looking at her, she'd been right. She gave him a dirty look. Pierre, which was the mans’ name, gave her an uncertain look, started to repeat that if she was looking for her boyfriend he had seen him go that way, but at her look thought better of it. Janine his wife was waiting at home in the berbs of Montreal. He hadn't seen her in over a week and missed her simple earthy ways. Janine was kind; she would never give a stranger a look like that even if she were in a bad temper. Pierre just shook his head, and looked for a sandwich from his bag. Fanguella smelt the egg salad sandwich that he had pulled out and realized that she was hungry. Checking her watch, she realized that she hadn’t slept long. It was another 5 hours before she would arrive in Montreal, and her stomach growled. She got up, and started making her way to the club car and froze. Richard had just gotten back to her car when he remembered that she probably would not welcome his presence. He stood for a moment in indecision, and was just turning to go back to his old seat when Fanguella got up and started walking right in his direction. Before he had a chance to make a run for it, she saw him. "Hi," was all that she said, looking like she was at a loss for words. "Um, I was looking for the washroom." Richard replied, carefully looking over her face. After the first moment of discomfort and indecision, Fanguella said hesitantly," I'm on my way to the dinner car, there is probably a washroom around there." With that unspoken invitation, Richard followed Fanguella over to the dinner car and sat down across from her, moving the fake flowers off to the side beside the wall. “I'm sorry I didn't " Fanguella started, but Richard cut her off. "Don't mention it, I'll take a rain check if you ever change your mind" They both smiled, feeling awkward. What could they possibly say to each other, after all, thought Richard. They have never had any kind of in-depth conversation together about anything except sex. He knew nothing about her, except that she was a fortuneteller. And that last meeting they had had together.
"How long have you been telling fortunes for?" He Asked.
"Well,” she started, hesitantly, “ I’ve been playing around with them ever since I was a teenager. I got quite good; people I didn't even know started coming up to me, asking to have there fortunes told." She paused, looking down blindly at the menu before continuing. "At first I got pretty popular at my school, older kids would approach me to get it done; I became a sort of celebrity around my school when people would swear that what I said came true.
“The people that I wasn't already friends with, I would charge. My first business was under a stairwell in a high school. Saved my pennies. I left before my last year, opting not to complete my OAC’s. Moved away, started this business." The waiter came at that moment to take their orders. Not a lot to choose from Fanguella noticed, and decided on a fish sandwich that came with fries and coleslaw. Richard chose a hamburger. Both got a beer. They were both puzzled, curious, wanting to read minds, feeling the tension become alive between them again. Beer after beer they relaxed more with each other, and Richard felt hope, and Fanguella reached for salvation. Salvation in sex? yes, sex will save her, sex will stop the numbing, stop the pain, sex will make her feel good again, and close, how she needed to be held close all of a sudden, she’d been so lonely lately. Looking at Richard, she noticed that despite a certain unpredictable glint he had in his eyes at times, there was also a gentleness. Richard was talking. She watched his lips, and his words seeped over her. " Like I've said, I've done a great many different things in my time, I was an entertainer for a while, I stripped. It was a lot of fun. Then I ended up opening up my own strip club, mostly left it to be run by the manager, up until now that is. I’ve recently become more interested in it. I’ve got some ideas for it, and that is why I'm going back to Montreal, which is where Calligraphy is. That’s the name. I've always loved the sound of that word, but more specifically, my dancers use body paint on each other. For a price, audience members can get in on it as well. I'm mostly living in Montreal these days as well, except I do come to Toronto for most of my conventions on massage therapy." “You've done lot of things," Fanguella slurred. "And from your background, it looks as though I crank called the right guy." They smiled at each other and there was a comfortable silence. “Where are you sitting? " Richard thought at first to lie, and say he was sitting in the car that she had been sitting in. Well, if she wanted him to sit with her, he'd leave that for her to offer, the ball was in her court after all since she had stood him up. "I've got a berth. I'm an old man these days, need a comfortable sleep. Like the idea of getting to where I need to go while I sleep." They smiled again at each other. "Mind if I join you?" Fanguella asked quietly. Gone was the saucy girl he had seen that first time. Her energy and confidence both seemed to have seeped out of her. She appeared fragile as she asked. He located a couple of green bills and a blue one from his pocket, dropped them onto the table and took her hand. “Let’s go.” He said gently. She allowed him to lead her down the hall. Each stopped in the washroom for a minute. Richard had a silent conversation with himself in the mirror. I won't rush things. He told himself. What are her intentions, he wondered as well, she was different this time, he couldn't place her. He washed his hands and left. Fanguella on the other hand did not think, she was tired, that’s all she knew. She needed to touch Richards broad muscular back. Her fingers tingled. She held back as she followed him down the hall, eyes glued to his back. Each climbed up, started undressing. It was warm. Fanguella slid in-between the sheets, against Richards’s long warm body and sighed. They kissed slowly; Fanguella buried her face in his neck and was asleep in a minute. Richard cupped her bottom and pulled her up against him. He nibbled her neck a little, but it was too late, she was asleep. He sighed, not really all that surprised.