A Train to Past

Chapter 2

My phone displays the beauty of Liebetown, the brown walls and destroyed castles, not a single person in sight. The air mixed with the dust creating an image of loneliness. I scroll and scroll to find something interesting, But it's all abandoned stores and houses. But not a single crack on the paths, No wrappers laying on the streets. Too clean and tidy. I'm unsure if we're allowed to go there. I look up to Lucian, He's staring out of the window admiring the beauty of greens. This town has nothing but some trees and castles But it seems too familiar, maybe to haunted houses.

He glances at me once and then smiles at me. "You can rest your shoulders, why are you so worried?" He asks casually. He won't mind if I don't answer it but I do. "I don't know anything about Liebetown." I confess. "I thought it might be an interesting place to go for photographs." He squints his eyes for the rays directly hitting his eyes. A perfect brown, a perfect sculpture.
"It's okay if you don't know anything about it. Most people don't, I'm just familiar with that place, and I'm sure it's interesting."

When I don't say anything he continues. "That town has a story, That no one knows about, I'm trying to find About it." His face shows somewhere between happy and tired emotion. "Are you a fan of love stories?" I ask. Not knowing what else to do to wipe off that expression.  He nods. "I was always a fan of love stories, that's the most interesting part of the history, Love." He continues, "No matter how many pyramids are broken or how many crowns are buried in the land, how many lovers died but the love is still alive.  it never dies, somewhere, someone knows about it." A half smile appears on his face. The words he said gave me a whole overwhelming feeling. He's right, lovers die but love Doesn't.
"Are you?" His voice removes me from my sadness, "fan of love stories?"
"Yes, yes I am." I agree. "In fact I have some historical love stories with me." I removed a book, A diary to be specific. I shuffle through the pages to show him. "Is that your love story?" He asks silly questions for silly answers. But this in fact is my love story, ours.
"Uhm… I don't know? It can be." I laugh. He doesn't ask for the diary to read instead he says "How about you read that for me?" The question spun around my brain, not knowing what to answer I say nothing. I keep the diary close to me in my arms, the pages torn and ruined. I wrote this when I was in middle school when I started to get the memories I didn't remember making.

He doesn't ask anything more, nor does he complain about it. I feel an uneasy feeling inside my stomach. I hope that he snatched the diary and read it all without my explanation, But he's too polite to do that.  And I'm too sensitive to read it out loud.  The time doesn't pass per second, I keep watching the hand of my watch moving, it's only been two hours and I already made it uncomfortable for us. Three days should not be that hard, all i have to do is ask for his phone number or something that can connect me with him, so i can start a new life, a new love. It doesn't matter if he won't like me, I'll be happy to just be in his presence, the new memories, Happy ones instead of the one that makes me go mad and hurt my head. I look at him from the corner of my eye, his head resting on the window as he stares out. It looks like he never died, It was just me. The reincarnation of Elion as Lucian, but he's still Elion, the only difference is Now he smiles for everyone.
I sometimes wonder if Achilles reincarnated too, for meeting the other half soul of him. If patroclus waited for him to do so. Or if they were not as lucky as us to be reincarnated at the same time. I don't know why I remember those things, or if they're just scenarios I made up. But they're too vivid and too close to my heart for being just scenarios. I thought the majestic beauty of Elion was just inside my head, because a beauty like him couldn't exist unless it was for a wait of hundreds of years. But  Then it existed, Hundreds of years ago, and now. I don't know how many years ago it was, that even the internet doesn't know anything about them or the place.
But it was all written I believe, for us being reincarnated in the same period. It's more of a curse than a blessing to remember one, when he doesn't.
After some time he asked me about my university or what I was studying. It felt like revealing too much, but I answered him anyway. He talked about the books his mother wrote and how he got interested in history. "I was ten year old when my mother was writing a love story, historical fiction." He said. "She completed the whole thing when I was twelve, and I read that, I wasn't allowed to because it was targeted for a mature audience and I was supposed to be studying for my exams but I liked the way my mother talked and wanted to see if her writing would be as sweet as her voice. so I stole that from her drawer and read it all night instead of studying." He laughed in between saying that, about his silliness for doing that, and suddenly we were once again comfortable and talking. "That story haunted me, because the main characters died in the end, and i didn't talk to my mother for a week because she killed them." We burst into laughter. "No but that was actually very sad, and i cried even while writing exam." My cheeks and stomach hurts from laughing, his laugh sounds deep and velvety, a very contagious one.
"Did she let you read any of her other work? Afterwards?" I ask not wanting to end the conversation and meeting with awkward silence again. "She did sometimes, before publishing it, so i was her first reader." The memories of his mother seem very sweet and dear to him, unlike Elion's. I asked for his mother's name so I could read her work and support her books, but she turned out to be an author I'm already a fan of.
"Josephine R.D Is your mother?" I stare at him in pure amusement. Not one thing about this journey could have warned me about how I was going to meet the son of my favorite author.
"I don't believe you. Is your last name something from R or D?" I speak in an unbelievable tone. He laughs, then I do too. "The R stands for 'Rose' her middle name and the D stands for  her mother, my grandmother's name 'Daphene' there's nothing about last name there." He removes his phone, and shows me a photo of him and his mother. "You could be her fan in that photo it looks too formal." I doubt senselessly. He covers his mouth keeping his laugh low and decent. He shows me some more and more, "Please tell her I love her and I read all of her work." I plead jokingly. "Now you're speaking." He act convinced. "Well jokes aside you can come to my house with me to meet her." My heart beats faster, the whole situation is the opposite of sense. "Oh well that would be bothersome for her and you." I say, but he starts telling me about how nice she's and how I can just go as his friend and not her fan. The fates are testing my patience. I say yes to him without knowing anything about when or where. Because right now we're going to Liebetown.

His gaze lingers around the diary in my arms but he doesn't ask for it yet. Nor does he question it, he doesn't seem curious if it weren't for his eyes. The only matching quality of Elion. "How many days are you staying in Liebetown?" I ask, Curiosity is something hard for me to hide, so it's very essential when I'm only going for him. "Around four to five." He answers back. Four to five sounds like a short time if he continues to talk, but it takes a few words and actions to make everything awkward. I cannot stay there for five days but I have to tell him the story, I have to make him my friend even if he doesn't remember anything. I have to find a source for connecting me to him, three days inside the train and five in Liebetown will decide our new destination. "What about you? You're just going for photography, so two days? You said there's nothing interesting." He waits for the answer. "I'll be staying there for more than two days, it's a big town, and if it's not interesting I have to make it interesting. For myself and my photography." I managed to answer his question without giving him an exact number of days. If I said I would be staying there for five days too, I might look like a clingy and stalker. "Are you going to be a proper professor there? Like writing and stuff about the details you see?" I joke but he doesn't laugh. "I'll write the details yes, even if there's no one and it's abandoned, there might be someone, something." He looks extremely serious. "The streets are too clean to be abandoned. And there has to be a reason why no one is buying such big land when it could be a great tourist place." Everything he says makes sense to me. But the way he wants to know the past of the town doesn't. Everyone might be curious about it, I'm too. How can a beautiful town like that be broken and abandoned but that doesn't mean I would try to find About it when the information isn't available or accessible anywhere. I scan the other seats, not many people are here around four including us. The serenity of air and  day dimming is precious to our presence. The other two people mind their own business, a girl wearing her formal white shirt with a high ponytail too busy with her phone. The other is a lady with a baby, she stares out of the window, her eyes red and sleepless, the child in a deep sleep.

Lucian stares at me as I look at them trying to imagine their reasons for going there. "How long have you known about Liebetown?" I asked as I caught him staring at me. At first he opens his mouth to say something but then he changes his mind. After a while he speaks. "I heard about it from my mother's friend, She said she'll be using the similar features of that town in her story." He tells me about the authors and their obsession with writing very detailed scenes. "At first I didn't mind but they both started talking about it more and more and I got curious. The first time I went there it was scary, I was alone and didn't know anything. I told my mom I'm going to meet my friend, one who lives out of town. She believed my lie and didn't bother to ask for further explanation." I nod as I listen to him speak, everything he says sounds interesting and convincing. He chuckles. "Second time I was a little confident and tried clicking pictures and writing some information about it, I researched about it for a year." The look on his face looks exhausted, "and now I'm here again for the third time." I understand his curiosity to know more about it, the town is like a hidden treasure. He, a historian? Would give it all to find history behind it. "You can be my guide, thank god." I say and he laughs. "What did you find in your research?" I wonder.
The laugh disappears little by little, leaving just a smile on his face.
"Well, it's quite confidential you see?" He folds his arms holding back another laugh. "Oh confidential, I see." I giggle, hiding my interest and curiosity. Even if I tried to find something about it, I won't be able to as much as he knows. "Come on, just tell me." I mutter, trying not to sound too needy. "I'll." He looks out of the window then back to me. "When you read that to me." He points his eyes on my diary. My heart catches a quick beat. "You can read it." I offer without giving him the diary. "Nope. That would be boring for our journey, I'm a great reader, I swear but I want you to tell me that story so we both are doing something, you talking, me listening."

I hate how his brain works. He doesn't want me to feel bored or left out, but I don't know if I'll be able to explain how I wrote it. I just wanted him to find the pieces of us in it by himself. "Let's see." I open the book, and he sits straight, giving me all of his attention.
"The story of Elion and Oryn." I read and he smiled.