Seat No 14 (Ryan. A. Nash)

The doors slid open. An old woman hobbled out on a cane with a handle shaped like a vulture's beak, very similar to the one he'd wanted to buy at Hobbs' place. It cost quite a fortune for a little wooden stick. Anyway it's not as though he can't walk. At least now, it is not that bad as it used to be. He managed to get in just as the doors slid shut, thanks to the fat jerk with the hotdog with extra mustard in his hand. He raised a brow in frustration. That is all he did. Fate takes its toll on men. And apparently train travels too.

He went in and took the seat by the executive, who read the business magazine all the time. He never got what fascinated him so much. And he never tried to get it. He looked out the window. The grim walls of the tunnel passed by fast, in the opposite direction as fast as him. Had it been a little sign, he'd forgotten to interpret?

The train stops. He looks out expectantly, and there they were; the red-haired woman, with her equally red haired little girl. He couldn't help but smile. For a moment he forgot about his three missing teeth and grinned. The woman sat opposite to him with her girl. He had been waiting for the day he'd see them again. The day he'd hear the kid's surprised laugh whenever he pulled the penny trick on her (worked like a charm every single time), the day he'd have a peaceful chat with her again. He called out to the little girl.

"Hey kid. Remember me? "

The kid stared at him. She then turned to her mom

"Mommy I'm scared..."

She picked up her kid, cast him a look which wiped the grin off him, took her girl and went to the next bogey. She got down at Springfield Avenue, as she'd always done. She walked left after getting down as she always had done. He looked at them till the train started off again.

He sat there, head bent down, with a tear waiting to breach its boundaries. He looked up. There was the lady with the kid, sitting there opposite to him. The kid was looking misty eyed at the young man who pulled a penny out of her ear. They looked happy. The kid kept asking "Tell me how uncle J tell me tell me please pretty please?". "I'll tell you when you get older kid."

The young man vanished into mist along with the lady and the girl too. He was left staring into the window pane opposite him. A worn out face, scars right across the right cheek, a plastic cone where there should have been a nose, 3 teeth missing, a hat drawn low over the forehead to hide the scars that were there. But the eyes, they were still the same, the very same blue eyes which twinkled while pulling the penny out of the ear. He tore his eyes away from the pan and put his hand inside his pocket and pulled out a grimy penny. A wry smile was all he could manage.


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Four months earlier.

"See you tomorrow kid! "

"Bye uncle J!"

The woman smiled at him. He smiled back. They got off the train. He took his newspaper out and turned it to the comic section. Then it happened.

The train derailed. The first two compartments were badly damaged. Ten dead and 15 more injured. Jake Summers was one of them. With two metal rods through his face, missing the brain by an inch and half a compartment crushing his legs, he wished for death. It eluded him.

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"I thought you wanted to know. Uncle J would have told you now that you're older," He thought to himself. He placed the penny in seat no 14 the same seat he'd taken on that fateful day. His stop had come. He stepped out gingerly, adjusting his weight on the better foot. He walked away with his hat low over his face against the breeze. The train pulled away. He took the bus to work from the next day on.