All My Colours

The Arrival

19th September 1996

I sat on my train to Whitby, thinking about the future. I used to live there when I was younger. My parents had to move down to London when I was around five and obviously, I had to go with them. 'Work-related stuff', they'd always say. My mother worked in modelling and my father was an aspiring author. When I was seven my father died from a heart attack. He never showed any signs of heart or health problems in his life but one night he climbed into the warm bed next to my mother and the morning after she woke up to find him pale and stone cold next to her. She'd told me that he'd been dead since the night before, and it broke me for a while. But as time went by, my relationship with my mum changed dramatically. As soon as I got older we spent less and less time together.

The train began to pull into a station. I looked out of the window; the station was empty except for a few people who sat alone on benches. As the train halted and the doors opened a bitter evening wind blew through the carriage. I saw a girl running up the platform towards the train. The doors beeped as they began to close and she just managed to make it in. She wore a grey beanie over her messy blonde hair and a blue denim jacket over a striped shirt. My carriage was almost full, all but two seats. One next to me and one next to a dodgy-looking man in the corner. She scanned around the carriage and looked worried for a second, thinking she might have to sit next to the nonce in the corner. She saw the seat next to me and quickly approached

"Is this seat free?" She asked, sounding unsurprisingly out of breath.

"Yeah." She popped herself down next to me. We both sat in awkward silence for a few seconds until she started speaking.

"Where are you off to then?" She looked at me, her eyes glistening in the sun.

"Whitby, I'm moving back here with my mother," I told her.

"You're moving back, when did you leave? She asks curiously.

"Eleven years ago. My mother's coming later with all our stuff. I'm meeting a friend at the station."

"Oh cool, I came here a few years ago with my parents too."

I stared out the window towards the sunset, the golden hues of the sun blended seamlessly into the indicolite waves of the sea. I sat there quietly for the rest of the journey, lost in thought. I wondered whether my old friend Axel would be waiting at the station as I'd planned. God, it had been so long since I'd last seen him, would he even be the same as when I left?

The blonde girl reached into her backpack and pulled out a book. I glanced over at the cover; 'The Few Left Behind'. It was a book my father had written before I moved. The local bookshop always used to stock up on copies and keep them on a bestsellers table by the door. I thought about telling her about the author of her novel when my thoughts were interrupted.

"Ding!"

A bell rang overhead to signal our journey was ending. The girl picked up her backpack and put her book on the tray table in front of her. The train slowed to a halt and the doors opened, she got up to head out. She turned to me before leaving.

"Hey, I'll see you around."

She walked out of the carriage and down the platform.

I noticed her book was left on the now empty seat and picked it up. I left the train a few moments later and looked around for her. She was gone. I looked around for Axel, hoping the girl goes to my school so I can give her the book back, and saw someone leaning against a pillar about ten feet away.

"Axel?" I asked, really hoping I'd got the right person.

He turned to me; he had messy light brown hair a white jumper with blue denim dungarees over the top.