Time To Go

 

Time To Go

By Paul McCann

 

The old man got out of bed and looked outside the window . It was  pouring down with rain and he thought ,  I’m not to going to work today , honestly, it’s all getting to much for me  these days and for the money I get paid it’s just now worth it . He rang in sick and the employer wasn’t happy about him having  a day off   This made the old man upset and he responded in a simple way telling his employer he would not be back again to work there .

After he quit suddenly, he felt like a heavy weight had been taken from his shoulders . He had a feeling of release .

He hung up the phone and looked out the window . The dark clouds had gone and the rain had stopped .

Now the sun was shining and was a new day ,.He had the urge to do a  morning walk . It was early and the busy hustle and bustle of everyday life hadn’t yet begun so he opened the door and went out into the empty streets . It was quiet and in silence he could hear the sound of his heart beating . He walked through the city to the front gate of the botanical gardens . Along the pathway he walked looking at the strange plants and trees with colourful flowers everywhere .

It was a delight for him to be there instead of the workplace sweeping dirty floors and scrubbing toilets . He always tried to be happy at work but it was getting harder for him with constant complaints from his employer about his standard of work .

Today as he walked along through the botanical gardens he thought about the times when he was young and served in the army during the war .

Then he thought about when he was a young lad and how different the world was back then . The world he lived in today was a different place to what he once knew .

In the botanical gardens there was a man in a hot air  balloon there ,

The old man went over to have a closer look . Filled with intrigue and astonishment he went to say hello to the man who invited him for a quick  birds eye view of the city . Thyge old man jumped at the opportunity and was helped to climb into the basket .

In a few moments the hot air balloon was ascending into the sky with the two men inside the basket .

The city below started to look like a distant scene and after a while the balloon was hovering on a breeze and riding a warm current towards making its descent . The wind changed direction and the hot air balloon went off course towards the coast . The old man wasn’t worried as he had been in similar situations during the war when he had been hanging from a parachute that had entangled itself in a tall tree .After a little while the hot air balloon was able to make its descent back to the ground.

The man who owned the balloon apologized for what had happened .

The balloon had landed near a railway station and the old man decided to go there and try to get a train back to the city ,

Although everything looked strange , it seemed like a friendly place with people saying hello and smiling back at him .

As he came to the railway station l the old man was approached by a young man who asked him to hold his suitcase for a few moments . The suitcase was very heavy and time passed but the young man never returned . He stood there waiting for the young man to return but he never did ,.

Then something strange happened , the old man started to get younger by the minute . In a short time, there he was on the at the station as a young boy holding this suitcase in his hand that was a lot lighter in weight now ,

He looked at the suitcase that had a train ticket with his name on it .

As the train arrived at the station, he felt compelled to get on board .

Something was happening that he had no control over .

He took a seat inside the carriage and looked out the window at the countryside . The train stopped at another station and a well-dressed lady took a seat near him on the train .She looked at him and smiled .

“Finally , I have been waiting so long to get on this train . “

He had never seen this lady before but there was something about her that seemed familiar , then he remembered , she looked very like his first school teacher , Mrs Mc Kacker.

At the next stop another passenger got on the train and took a seat beside the  young man with the suitcase . He also looked very familiar . After a while he remembered it looked like his old football coach in the team he played for as a child ,

He smiled and said with a grin .

“Hello there young lad . What’s your name ?

“My name is Sammy “‘

‘Well Sammy my name is Mick . It’s nice to meet you , do you know what I like about train trips ?:

“What’s that Mick  “

Said Sammy

Said the young lad .

“The people we meet on the train or in this carriage , come and go like ships in the night . Some of them will stay until the journey is over and others will  get before the destination. It’s a fascinating thing, isn’t it ?“

Sammy just smiled

The well-dressed lady responded.

“My name is Eve and  I used to be a school teacher . That’s an interesting thing you just said , it is a fascinating kind of thing . Travellers on a train who are all bound for home or maybe somewhere that they’ve never been before”:

Other people came on board the train at different stops ,

Young and old . The most fascinating thing was that all the faces were very familiar to Sammy . Somewhere faces of his childhood friends , others of people he had known in his life . Comrades from the war years and  then came the moment where everything fell into place , in to the carriage came his first girlfriend , she sat opposite him in the carriage smiling , then his parents came on board and sat next to him on the train .

Somehow, he realised , this was not an ordinary train trip .

His mother put her hand on his head and said ,

“Time to go now son .“

 His father added ,.

“We’re all on our way home .“

Everything outside the train began to change . A bright light was shining in the carriage and outside of the train , different images of moments in his life appeared . It was almost like he was watching a movie of his life . Everything he had been through and experienced . In a very short moment of time his life passed before his eyes and the train arrives at its destination .

Guides were waiting to bring all of the passengers to a waiting area for their allocation to live happily ever after ,

 

The End

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