Morning Trains

The little boy liked watching the trains of a morning. When he woke up, he could stand on his bed and look out the window. Then he would see the station next door. Every morning, he watched the people gather on the platform, then get in a train and get whisked away. Then it repeated. He loved watching the trains come and go. His mother would say it kept him quiet for a little while before she got him dressed before breakfast.

Most of the trains were long, silver trains that filled the platform. Most of the people would get in those. Then there were the blue trains which came sometimes. There were a little shorter. Not many people on the platform got on those. And they always had people getting off. They must go to a different place. The blue train also took some time to turn up, so long that it always felt like one was missing before a blue train came. The silver trains came in quick succession, one after another, two and three, then a gap and a blue train. Then another silver train.

And then there was the red train. It was even shorter than the blue train, yet lots of people always got on it. The little boy wondered that they didn't make the red train longer, because there were always people who never got on it, but just waited for another one. Then he realized they were waiting for another silver train and had gotten there early.

One man he saw who did that always wore a funny round hat. That's how he remembered him. He was tall and thin, and always dressed in a dark suit. The little boy thought Round Hat Man looked bored. He would appear on the station when the crowd filled one of the silver trains, then he would stand there whilst the red train came and went, then he would step forward for the next silver train and get on that.

Then there was the dumpy looking lady who wore a bright yellow, fluffy coat when it was cold. He thought she looked a little like one of his toys that wobbled along the carpet when you pulled it. Fluffy Coat Woman would hurry onto the platform in a past Round Hat Man every morning as he watched the red train go and then she got onto the same train as he did, but on a different carriage further away from the little boy's window. He thought perhaps she should get to the station earlier. But she never did. One morning, he didn't see her when the red train came. Instead, she came running even faster than usual when her silver train came. She nearly missed it, in fact, and her face was all red from the running. She had to get in the same carriage as Round Hat Man that morning. The little boy wondered if Fluffy Coat Woman liked travelling with Round Hat Man that day. Perhaps she didn't; she wasn't late the next day.

There was also Happy Lady and her friends. The little boy wasn't sure how many there was as he wasn't that good at counting yet, but he thought there was four of them. Happy Lady and her friends were always talking and laughing when they came onto the platform, often running, with Happy Lady always laughing the loudest. They always wore the same things, green skirts that down to their knees and white shirts always untucked, and they all carried green bags. In winter they wore green jumpers on and sometimes coats, too. The coats were all different colours, though, with Happy Lady's a bright red that made her green skirt look wrong. They would play games sometimes, running around the platform, sometimes with one of their friend's bags. They always got onto one of the silver trains, but not always the same one, which the little boy didn't really understand. They usually got the silver train that Round Hat Man didn't get.

Happy Lady wasn't liked by all the people on the platform. There was a old man with a walking stick and almost no hair who made his way slowly and carefully down the steps to the platform at the same time every morning. He rarely had to wait for a silver train. The little boy saw Walking Stick Man talk to Happy Lady and her friends a few times as they ran past him. He was clearly unhappy at her and didn't want them running around. The little boy wanted to tell him "She's just happy. She's always happy." But it was only a few times that he spoke to her and after that Happy Lady and her friends didn't run near Walking Stick Man so much.

Once he saw one of Happy Lady's friends almost run into someone else on the platform. Plastic Bag Lady always had a large white plastic bag with a big pink flower on it. It looked bit like a box with handles sitting on its end. She wasn't on the platform every morning, but that morning two of Happy Lady's friends weren't watching where they were going quite as well as they normally were. Next thing, Plastic Bag Lady's shiny carry bag was knocked over behind her. The little boy didn't see what fell out of it, but Happy Lady and her friends immediately helped pick up the bag and give it back to Plastic Bag Lady. She seemed a little surprised at this, but wasn't unhappy when Happy Lady and her friends moved back down the platform. Walking Stick Man spoke to Plastic Bag Lady briefly then. He seemed a little surprised at what had happened, too. After that, sometimes when Plastic Bag Lady was on the platform, she would wave hello to Happy Lady and her friends and they would wave back.

There were also people who didn't get on the train. One lady always turned up with a little girl in a stroller a little like the one he sometimes went out in and a man who must be her husband. All three of them waited on the platform for his train, then, just beforer he got on, she would kiss him briefly, and he would bend down and give the little girl a kiss. Both of them would wave to him as his train left, and then she would take the little girl off the platform. He liked that. It spoke to him of a happy family. He called her Mrs Mummy.

One morning, the little boy was very surprised to see a lot more people on the platform than he'd ever seen before. It seemed like there was so many they might fall off the edge. That would be bad. The first silver train he usually saw was a long time coming. And not all the people could fit on, either. The little boy worried about what was happening. He never saw a blue train that morning, or the red train. And there weren't many silver trains. He was a little sad he had to leave his window before he saw what happened, but he was very happy to see things were normal the next day.

The last train he usually saw of the morning was a silver train. He'd noticed he could see the driver in the most of the trains, but particularly in the silver trains and had taken to waving at them as they left the station. It wasn't long before the driver of the last silver train he saw of the morning would wave back at him. It gave him such a delight to see that.



The driver of the 7:53am train to Wessingstoke had noticed that there was always a little boy in the window of the house at the edge of the station. He seemed to be fascinated by the morning peak hour, looking at the people and the trains. He also noticed the little boy always waved at the train driver, too, just as he was moving off.

It reminded him so much of his own little boy, just a bit younger than this one, that he always waved back.