Not Strictly Sherlock

Mrs. Hudson: Part 4

The train station was a loud, bustling place, as throngs of travelers, well-wishers and workers were all bent on going, arriving, or assisting those who wished to do one or another. The two women found the train platform marked on the tickets and decided to wait and watch.

"I suspect, she will be young, simply dressed and carrying only a bag or two," said Martha, as they scanned the platform for a woman who met her assumption. It was almost four o'clock when Ellie spotted a young brunette who matched Martha's guess to a tee. The young lady walked along the platform and took up a position away from the tracks and towards the newsstand. She set her carpet bag, and small valise down and anxiously looked up and down the platform. She was looking for someone, or more specifically, she was waiting for someone.

"There Martha, that girl in the navy dress - by the newsstand."

Martha located the girl and clutched Ellie's arm in excitement.

But now what to do, thought Martha. Should they go talk to her? Was it their role to tell her the truth and dash all her dreams?

Then Martha saw him, a man was standing back away from the platform, to the rear of the newsstand. He appeared to be watching the woman they supposed to be Laura. He was a large man, wearing a simple cloth cap and a workman's clothes with his collar turned up. He held out an open newspaper but was looking over the top of it towards Laura. There was something sinister about his bearing, about his look.

Martha tugged at Ellie's sleeve and having gained her attention, nodded towards the man. Ellie cautiously glanced over towards the newspaper-man and then back at Martha. Ellie's expression betrayed her immediate suspicion.

The time was now ten after four, and it became apparent that Laura's anxiety was reaching a pitch level as she was repetitiously looking up at the station clock, and then back and forth along the platform. Her eyes were searching for her companion in increasing worry.

Martha was struck by the sadness and pending finality of the melancholy scene as it played out before her. The young woman was nervously looking for a love who would never arrive; her anxiety increasing as she imagined various excuses for his absence. Then, confusion and disbelief, as the conductor called out final boarding and the train coughed up its great clouds of steam.  Finally, grief and horror as the train pulled away and she realizes that he is not coming: but why?

It was the not knowing that gave birth to the horror. People's ability to either engage in the fancy of beautiful outcomes or else create monsters out of their fears were the only certainties in uncertainty.

Ellie looked at Martha, her eyes glistening with empathy for the poor girl. Martha knew what Ellie was about to do, and she took a firm grasp of El's wrist to prevent her from going to Laura.

When Ellie had received the bad news of the sinking of her husband's ship, and that no survivors were recovered, she stubbornly refused to believe the news. His body was never found. She remained in a state of denial for two years, as she firmly believed he had survived and was going to come home to her.  Ellie understood the shock of loss and that hope can be a sentence.

Laura remained at the platform after the train had departed the station. She looked around like a child waiting for a parent to give her guidance; in fact, she was lost, as the road to happiness so gaily run down this afternoon, had been snatched away and she was left standing in an unknown and hostile land.

Hesitantly, she reached down, picked up her two bags, and started back down the platform from whence she had come. And as inevitably as night follows day, the man with the newspaper tucked his paper under his arm and started walking after her.