On the Tracks

When Jo boarded the tram, she had a pretty clear indication of where she was headed. She wanted to go somewhere far, but not too far, somewhere no-one would know her, somewhere she could lose herself for a while. She checked the various lines, the various stops on the lines promising her freedom, a space where she could clear her head and forget about everything she had lost.

The tram was slowing again, pulling in for a minute, allowing other passengers to get on, some with hard-set expressions, others wearing beatific grins, laughing as they passed. Jo hunkered down in her seat, not wanting to inflict her misery on those housing happy hearts.

Outside, the sky had turned a fine aluminium grey, the swollen clouds pregnant with unshed rain. Soon they would burst, spilling their transparent seed far and wide, washing the world clean. Jo closed her eyes and imagined the feel of the cool drops on her fevered skin, temporarily easing her restless mind.

The tram continued onwards and Jo said a final farewell to the last stop, a place which didn’t interest her in the slightest, a place which was too close to home to be considered comfortable. No, she needed to go further, possibly all the way to the end of the line before she could breathe easy.

The clouds continued to roll in and Jo was glad of the carriage, the four walls which protected her, the ceiling with its flickering light which was probably doing more damage than she cared to admit. She didn’t feel that brave enough yet, not brave enough to step outside and expose herself to the elements. Her heart was a glass cage, shattered in a hundred thousand ways, barely maintaining its shape, but she was clinging on, just about.

On the Tracks

Eventually, she closed her eyes and slept.

When Jo awoke, a momentary rush of panic upset her chest and she pushed herself to her feet. Outside, the world looked like a completely different place and home seemed another continent away.

She alighted at the next stop, the name nothing like the one she had decided on at the beginning of her journey, and tilted her head toward the sky. It had started to rain, fine sprinkles dancing on her skin like the softest kiss. She opened her mouth and welcomed the purity entering her body, her glass cage heart still as fractured and unstable as before, but slowly healing, one journey at a time.