Chapter 8: The Train Ride
I met the gang near the ladder to the exit. They looked....different. All of them were dressed in long trench coats and wide-brimmed fedoras. They stared at me through their colored masks, waiting for my reaction. I felt like Ingrid Bergman with a bunch of Humphrey Bogarts.
"Um, you guys look, um, very handsome."
"You hit the nail right on the head, sweetheart!" Mike spoke up in the worst Bogart impression I ever heard.
"Please don't talk like that the whole time, Mike!" Raph begged, then turned to me. "You can be honest with us, Jewel. We look like a bunch of weirdoes, right?"
That was too easy. I could have said, "With or without the coats?" but chose not to. "No, you guys look fine. It's understandable you have to dress like that in public."
Don changed the subject, checking his watch. "Let's go, guys. We've got a train to catch."
We went up the ladder and onward through the underground sewer path. I couldn't
help but stare at their attire as we walked. I did the usual female size-up that
girls usually do to one another when
judging a fashion statement. I walked around, in front, and behind them, checking
out their disguises. They would occasionally glance at my beaming face then turn to
keep looking straight ahead.
"Would you stop!" Don finally spoke up, placing a hand on my head to stop me from circling them like a vulture.
"I can't help it. The trenchcoats remind me of detectives from Scotland Yard! I just love them!"
"Well, that's a relief to know." Leo mumbled.
The train station wasn't too bad for the afternoon. Normal billions of people
rushing in and out of the terminals. We ended up with a crowd of people to get to
the ticket booth. I watched as the
Turtles pulled their collars up tighter to hide their faces. Each stood single file
in line, waiting to pay. Pay?! Oh, my gosh, I don't have any money! I
turned around to Raph.
"Um, Raph, I don't have any money!"
"Take it up with Don, that's where I got my money from."
Don stood in front of me. I tapped his shoulder and he turned around to my big smile. "Don? Can I borrow some money?"
He smiled back. "No. Ask Leo. He's the keeper of the green paper with dead presidents pictured on them."
I went toward the back, allowing Don and Raph to go ahead of me. "Leo, do you think you can-"
He handed me some money. "I already heard. Here you go."
"Thanks! I'll pay you back once I'm able to-"
Leo waved a hand, frowning. "Don't worry about it!"
"Aw, whatta nice guy!" Mike droned out at the back.
Leo turned around. "One and the same."
Finally, the mob of people moved over to the awaiting track, us being apart of it.
I never thought I could be so up close and personal to fellow strangers. It
was a bit uncomfortable. I backed up closer to
my group, smelling an aroma of cologne and musk. Mmm. These guys knew how to
please a woman. To smelling good of course.
The train slowly pulled into the station and once again, everyone crowded on. I
grabbed a window seat and Don took the next window in front of me. Obviously we both
liked to look out our windows.
Leo sat down in the seat by me as Mike and Raph grabbed two available spots on the
opposite side. Some guy sat next to Don with a book, totally ignoring him. He
was soooo cute! How do people
like him end up having to ride a scummy train? He should be driving a Lexus or even
better a 4X4 Bronco. Leo noticed me staring at the back of his head, sort of locked
in a dazed look. My piletheral
vision caught on and I turned to Leo, my face changing to a blush.
"He's gorgeous!" I whispered. Leo rolled his eyes.
I sat back in my chair, crossing a leg over the other and doing what I like to do
most. Stare out through the window. Don did the same, his cheek pressed
against the cold glass. The brim of his hat
was slightly bent in the front from leaning on the window. Well, this was going to
be a good two hour ride. Wish I brought a book. Or even a walkman. Or
something. The Turtles just sat at their seats,
not moving or talking. Other people were talking, little kids were playing, a baby
wouldn't stop crying that sat directly behind me, ah, can it get any worse? Suddenly
the train hit something rather large on the track, rattling me out of my boredom. I
peeled my cheek off the window, looking at Leo.
"What was that? Did we hit something?!"
"'Fraid so." Just as he said that the train started to slow down.
Don groaned. "Oh, great! It must be an animal or something."
People resumed conversation, now talking about past times they were on a train and the
same thing happened to them or they were start guessing what it was we hit and wondering
how long it's going to
be before the train starts up again. Typical boring stuff
I turned to Leo. "So what do you think it was?" Now I was sounding like the rest of the group.
He shrugged. "I dunno. Could be anything. I doubt it was a person. The bump was too small. It may be a cat or dog."
I overheard Mike and Raph saying gross things of what it might been or what's left of whatever it was.
"You know, when it's a bigger animal, they usually have to pull it out more slowly from under the track. Smaller animals just pop out with one tug. And it's real gross how they have to do it too."
Mike stared wide-eyed with interest. "Nooo! You're kidding right?"
Raph nodded. "I'm dead serious! I saw it on Real TV. It
was up near the northern states where a deer leaped out from the woods and boy, it took a
long time to get the remains out from under the tracks.
It was so cool, they had to put that 'Viewer discretion is advised' before showing the
footage. You know it's bad when they have to tell you that."
Mike now joined in on story telling. "Oh, you know, I was watching TV and
they had this commercial for a video called Too Graphic for Television and they
were showing all kinds of horrible accidents
caught on tape. The last one they showed was where this guy in a business suit was
running alongside a train with a little girl I'd say in her teens following behind.
The guy cleared the tracks and she
started to follow. You can see what's going to happen, but they cut the scene to the
ordering page! Which I wrote down the address!"
Raph leaned back. "Whoa! Stupid girl! Did they show at all what happened to her?"
"Aw, man! You know how TV is! In order to find out, you have to buy the video. But you can imagine what happened to her!"
Raph chuckled. "So what you're saying is, she had a train to catch!"
Mike laughed out loud at that then tried to sound serious. "Oh, you're terrible. That's so bad! All they said was 'she was badly mangled' and left out the details! But there was another story that was really wicked! See, it starts off in like a really big office building like the Empire State Building. It had to be a reenactment this time. This guy's running to catch the elevator full of people and doesn't quite make it."
"So, what's so gross about that?"
"Well, he got half way into the elevator car. The man got decapitated; his body was still outside and his head rolled into the car!"
"Ohhhhhhh, man! Jeez! That's totally fake! Come, on! You're making this up!"
"No, I swear it really happened. It was in the papers. Can you imagine being one of those people in that elevator? Total freakout!"
I could see people getting up and changing seats, moving away from them. That's one way to do it. I laughed a little bit, turning to Leo.
"You know, my friend and I used to do stuff like that in high school. We'd sit at lunch and say gross things and students would leave, allowing us to have the whole bench to ourselves."
Leo nodded. "Fascinating."
"Well, my friend was more worse than me." I tried to sound like the innocent one. "She was so weird. She made me laugh but she had a sick humor about herself."
"Uh, huh."
I looked out the window again. "Yuuuup." I turned to the front.
Don was now talking to Mr. Hunk! He seemed to have an interest in the book the
guy was reading. Oh, I wish I had an interest! Even
if I were bored to tears with the book, the guy would be talking to me! I let out a
noticeable sigh as I watched the two gabbing.
Leo leaned toward me in and spoke in a whisper. "Jewel, have you forgotten you're married?"
I looked at him, guilt written all over me. "It doesn't hurt to look. Ed did the same thing to me and I knew it meant nothing."
Alright, I'm going to get busted if I keep making goo-goo eyes with this man. I turned around, smiling at the woman with the baby whom she was feeding with a bottle.
The woman looked tired. "You might as well get comfortable, dear. These occurrences take awhile before we start moving again."
"I take it you ride the train a lot."
"Yeah, I do. We have one car and my husband usually takes it to work and I needed to take this little one to a specialist doctor who's office is in the city."
"Aww, what's wrong with....um, is it-"
"He's a boy. He just had a little fever and a bad cough." She
patted his back and I was melting in my chair. I wanted to have a baby so badly.
The baby started to moan softly, making me want to hold
him. But the woman would think I was some nut case. The moaning caused Leo to
turn his head to us. He smiled at the woman.
"Oh, you found someone to talk to."
"Yeah, and you don't need to worry about me flirting with this boy!"
Leo rolled his eyes. "I'm just watchin' out for ya. Nothing personal."
I kept staring at the little bundle in her arms, not listening to what Leo said.
He seemed to get effected too as he beamed at the baby as well. "What's his name?"
"His name is James. And he's about 8 months old."
"James? Hey, that's my dad's name." Well, it was my dad's name, I thought to myself. Leo looked at me.
"Oh, well then I guess that makes my son special, huh?"
If only she knew what my dad was like, she wouldn't have said that.
"Yeah, real special." I hope my tone of sarcasm didn't hit her ears. She was too happy to hear about my own problems and didn't need to know my life history.
James let out a soft yawn accompanied with a low moan. "Awwww." Leo and I looked at one another as we realized we did that at the same time.
My body tingled and I laughed at him. "I wouldn't expect you to get all mushy, Leo!"
"What? Am I not permitted to liking kids?!"
"I would've expected it more from Mike."
"That's because Mike IS a kid. A very big kid."
I looked over at Heckle and Jeckle. "A kid with a sick sense of humor."
They were still going on about gross things. "-and another thing I saw from Dead
and Buried, this whole group of campers were up in the mountains hikin' and all and I
don't know how it broke out,
but there was a major brush fire that started in the area. Possibly because it was
so hot and the grass was so dry that it just burst into flames. Not to mention some
of the campers! Oh, man! It was
a doozy! You know how it looks after houses are destroyed by fires? Just
picture that same effect on a human being!"
Raph shook his head. "Where're ya finding the time to watch all of these?"
"I have a portable TV in my room, remember? Splinter told me I could keep it in there so that I can have some inspiration for my novels."
"Yeah, your horror novels!" Raph laughed.
Mike shrugged. "If it puts food on the table, go for it!"
The train slowly started to move again and I looked out my window to watch the scenery
start to blur. The soft roar of the engine made me drowsy. I pressed my cheek
against the glass and my eyes
were fighting to stay awake. This glass was uncomfortable against my head. I
placed my hands over my cheek to at least get into a good sleeping position. In the
process of moving around too fast,
I settled in on the window and banged my head hard against the glass. I could nearly
feel my teeth rattling as I pulled away.
"Ow!" I yelped, rubbing my head softly. Leo looked over at me.
"What happened?"
"Uh, I'm just clumsy!" I continued to rub; the left side of my temple was throbbing. A headache soon came on. I glanced at his arm. "Would you mind so terribly if I borrowed your arm?"
Leo looked away as if in deep thought. Then turned to me with a shrug. "Sure, go ahead."
"Thanks." I winced as I placed my sore head upon his coat sleeve, my left arm clutching at the fabric near his elbow. I curled my feet up onto the seat, getting comfortable. Leo stared down at my face.
"Does your head hurt?"
I looked up into his eyes. Underneath the mask were deep, penetrating eyes with a look of gentleness. "Yes. But it's nothing serious. The least of my worries will be a slight bruise."
Leo quickly moved his left arm off my head and put it around me. My eyes widened
from the sudden movement as my head landed in the crook of his chest. Before yelling
at him, I felt his left hand start
to massage the side of my temple where I banged my head. Oh, this guy was good!
I slowly drifted into a deep sleep, moving my head into place on his shoulder as he
continued to rub. Don must have
turned around because I heard the two talking. Leo's voice sounded like an echo
since my ear was on his chest and I can hear the vibrations from his vocal cords.
Their words were a little faint.
"Yeah, she banged her head on the window so I'm offering my services."
"I hope that's all you offer. She's a married woman, you know."
"I know."
"I dozed off a little on the window and didn't seem to injure myself. I was not about to ask Ryan to borrow his shoulder. Might get the wrong idea."
"Ryan?"
"Yeah, him." Don thumbed to the guy sitting next to him. He was wearing headphones. "He's got a very interesting lifestyle."
"More interesting than ours?"
"I don't think anybody's is. Nobody I've met so far. He's single,
living in a one bedroom apartment, studying at NYU, taking classes in drama and dance and
does a night job working as an usher for
Radio City Music Hall on selected days so he could spend time at his schooling. He
likes to go to clubs to socialize, dance, and as he puts it, thinks it's a great place to
find chicks. I see him as a player
type who may date but will warn the girl that he doesn't want to settle down."
"I'd say that's pretty interesting. Someone who has a life above ground
level and can go meet people without wearing heavy clothing or in constant fear of being
rejected is definitely a person who leads
an interesting life. It's high society that have those kind of lives and I envy them
to the fullest."
"Of course, I meant interesting as in this guy doesn't battle crime, take time
warps, fight alien monsters, or have a specific enemy that's out to kill him and want
revenge. The closest thing I could think of
would be battling it out with fellow students, co-workers, teachers, and even his boss
which all could be dealt with. He's got it easy compared to us, Leo."
"We all have our ups in downs in this world, Don. There's always going to be
someone who will find fault with another and there will always be a never-ending battle
between people. Or creatures.
And mutants." I could feel Leo shift as he looked downward at me.
"Jewel?"
My eyes were closed tight. I soon lost contact with what was going on around me and fell in a major deep sleep. Leo stopped rubbing my head and let his arm fall limply around my shoulder.
"She's out." Don quietly said.
"Uh, huh. She didn't sleep too good the other night. I guess we were all a bit shaken up."
"I can still see the corpse that jerked up in that morgue. Wheeew!"
Leo chuckled slightly. "Yeah, that was kinda freaky."
The train blew it's horn as it neared the station. The speed decreased and I
could feel we were slowing down. Leo shook me to wake up. I slowly opened my
eyes, pulling my head upward as Leo
set his arm back to his side. I touch the side of my head, feeling a small pain but
not as bad as before. Leo gestured to my head.
"How's your head?"
"A little better. Are we here?"
"I was just about to tell you that."
"Oh. What'd I miss?"
"Besides Christmas? Nothing much."
"Ha, ha."
Leo stood up, inching his way into the isle. I stood next, going past Leo toward the exit. Mike followed behind me as I stepped out, wiping my eyes from sleep. Mike came to my side.
"Were you sleepin'?"
"Uh, huh. I was tired."
"Your cheek's all red."
I touched my right cheek. It felt hot. That must have been when I rested against Leo's coat sleeve.
Raph stepped out next. "Whoa. Did someone slap you or somethin'?" He felt my cheek with his cold hand. Leo and Don came out last, talking to one another.
"No, Raph. I fell asleep borrowing Leo's jacket sleeve. Guess it left an imprint on my face."
Leo came up to me. "So what does this Hannah look like?"
I looked through the crowds. "Um, she's got long curly brown hair about waist length and she'll have her daughter and my step sister with her, Elizabeth."
"Ooh, is she married?" Mike grinned.
"She's only nine. Well, she'll be ten pretty soon. We're 10 years apart because I'll be 20 in a couple of months."
I walked around inside the station until I saw several feet away a beautiful woman
standing there with a little girl holding her hand. She wore a long floral dress
down to ankles. She had her hair in a
banana clip with the curls cascading down her back. The little girl wore blue denim
overall shorts with a lavender top underneath. Her thin light-brown hair was pulled
back into a neat braid with little
wispy bangs covering her forehead. Both were looking around as if trying to find
someone.
"Hannah!" The woman turned and I came running over.
"Jewel? Oh, my God!" Hannah wrapped her arms around me tightly. "Oh, it's so good to see you!"
I pulled away and got on one knee. "Hey, Lizzy! Remember me?"
She nodded her head slowly, clinging to her mom's waist. I extended my arms.
"Can I have a hug too?" She nodded again
with a shy grin and went into my embrace. The Turtles stood where I left them when I
took off running, watching the family reunion. I stood back up and looked over at
them.
Raph whispered to Leo. "That Hannah is a hottie!"
Leo whispered back. "She's also married with a child."
Raph groaned. "Aw, jeez! The good ones are always taken!"
I gestured to the four of them. "Hannah, that's the guys over there. My friends."
Hannah looked over at them. Elizabeth stared as well, eyes widened. Hannah looked down. "Wanna go say 'hi' honey?"
Elizabeth shook her head, continuing to stare. I took her hand. "It's okay, Liz. They won't hurt you. They're turtles. And I know you like turtles, right?"
Liz looked at me with uncertainty. "Are you sure? Those are big turtles!"
"Come on, I'll show you." I slowly brought her over, almost dragging her near them.
They smiled as I came over with Liz. Hannah followed behind.
"Guys, this is Hannah."
Hannah extended her hand to Leo, whom stood closest to the front. "Hi, nice to meet you."
Leo took her hand and shook it firmly. "Hi, Hannah. I'm Leonardo. Leo's fine, though." Leo stepped back to allow his brothers to introduce themselves.
Don came up, shaking her hand. "Donatello or just Don."
Followed by Raph. "Raphael." I saw him wink at her through his mask. She only smiled and nodded.
"Michaelangelo." He gave her a silly grin.
I pushed Liz in front of me whom somehow got behind my back. "And this is my
step sister, Elizabeth." I turned to her. "You got all their names,
right?" She nodded slowly, staring at them.
She walked up to Leo and extended her hand.
"I'm Elizabeth."
He took her hand and smiled. "Yes, I know who you are. I'm Leonardo but you can call me Leo for short."
She then brought her hand to Don whom shook it. "Donatello, right?"
"You got it. And you can call me Don if you'd like."
She turned to Raph. "Raphael."
He took her hand. "No, I'm Raphael. You're Elizabeth! But seriously, Raph's just fine." Well, at least it made her laugh.
She took Mike's hand. "And Michael....angel....Mike-"
Mike grinned at her. "Michaelangelo. But Mike will do." He winked at her and I knew his was safer than Raph's.
Hannah decided to keep the subjects going. "Well, Jewel. This is certainly a surprise. I'm so glad to see you after all these months. We really missed you."
"I know. I missed you too."
"Well, let's go. Luckily, I have room to fit everybody." Hannah placed an arm around me, heading toward the exit. Lizzy looked at the Turtles as they stood there.
She waved a hand. "Come on!" Then went to walk by her mom. The Turtles nodded at one another and caught up with us and headed out to the parked car.