Five: Heartly Train Station
The train station was busy and as crowded as usual at this time of the day, but perhaps even more so today due to the storm. If a line was drawn to bisect the city in half, separating north from south, it would give a rough indication of where the Central Trainline ran. Heartly Train Station was located just slightly off the very centre of the city. Heartly was the midway mark between the office and the home where I lived with my parents and my younger brother, Henry. Henry usually took the train to the university at the edge of the city.
Our house unfortunately was located right in between two train stations and just happened to be in a public transport blindspot. The fastest way home was to walk across the city to our little house that was located in one of the few residential districts where several heritage listed houses still stood together under the shadow of towering apartment giants.
Technically I could take a bus from outside the border of the old residential area of town where we lived to the newer side of town where the office was and then walk the last bit from the indirect location of the nearest bus stop. The bus stops were out of the way. Also, I didn't see the point in taking the bus when waiting and taking the bus would take almost the same amount of time if I power walked the distance because of the city centre traffic. Honestly, I preferred the walk and the exercise it gave me. It took ten minutes of fast walking to travel between one bus stop and the next. Half that if I ran. With a job as sedentary as mine and prolonged sitting during the day being a reason for shortened life spans these days, I'd rather take whatever incidental exercise I could squeeze in.
Our city was considered relatively large but to tell the truth, it was more of a sprawling, congested urban mess. It wasn't as up to date and high tech as the more major cities. Plans to turn the deep valleyed train lines into underground subways in order to free up traffic had been ongoing for twenty years with little to show for all the talk.
A flamboyant hippy danced through the crowds with a ukelele, strumming and singing a silly love song to anyone who gave him any attention. His long, curly hair flopped as he bounced about in a floral shirt and made women cringe at the cheesy lines in the song. He even sang to some men who pushed him away or gave him a rude gesture, although one or two cracked a smile. One woman glared at him, making him back up in a hurry into a group of high school girls carrying bags of shopping. They squealed and he sang a romantic apology that made their eyes widen and scurry away from him while drawing loops at the sides of their temples. They agreed he was definitely somewhat loopy. Unless he was drunk, high on drugs or both.
It was a bit late for high schoolers to still be out and about unless they had been doing extra curricular activities - or in this case, going on a shopping spree. The gaggle of girls settled in a space some distance from the flamboyant hippy guitarist and giggled to each other, casting looks at a trio of slouching youths trying too hard to look cool. One youth had a bird face, another looked like an out of practice burly wrestler and the third had a sharp chin. None of them were my idea of handsome, but who knew what some girls looked for in a guy? There were some far better specimens in the crowd than those three posers. Then again, those girls might just be ridiculing those guys while sending them signals to try harder. For a moment, I pitied the three youths.
A tired looking office worker carrying a briefcase and sporting a five o'clock shadow dodged between a group of chatting suited workers and a bunch of tradies with their toolkits. His footsteps were heavy and ponderous, bringing him to a wall that he slumped against. There were bags under his eyes that spoke of sleepless nights and his eyebrow tic jumped, giving him a nervous look despite the glum face. Maybe he had troubles at work or at home. The poor guy looked exhausted.
A tall man with mountains for shoulders adjusted his boots that bespoke serious outdoor action. Could he be a mountain climber? Maybe he was an office worker by day and a stuntman by night. Maybe he was just a well muscled gym junkie who used to be in the army. He could've been a burly tradie who wasn't wearing his fluoro safety gear or even a backpacker touring the city. Who knew? A man with such an imposing figure and icy demeanor silently demanded people respect his personal space. He was like a rock that water parted to get around. A handsome rock with a square face and a small scar on the chin. He looked like a man who could have been a commander in a war once upon a time but was trying to tone down his aura and cram his great potential into the small scope of everyday life.
The pedestrian flow forced me closer to him and I realised he was even bigger and taller than I thought. If I hugged him, my hands wouldn't be able to touch each other behind his back. Not that I would normally hug a random man that has caught my eye in public. Man, those chest muscles were built. Most people not vertically challenged like me had the tops of their heads at least brushing his shoulders. Being shorter than the majority of the populace, I barely reached his midchest.