Seen from far below the bridge, the multitude of girls he’ll never see again, quietly appalled by the carnage.
All the colour in the stationhouse has gone. The fire spreads from the bridge right up to the embankment. And yet still wild roses continue to bloom along the only approaching road, extremely conscientious, and occasionally wavering into a single clear flame.
The order came from out of the dark, deriving more than likely from one of those hovering surrounding images, which upon first glance seem so harmless: a cave, a snug, a thicket, an unattended altar.
Now only the remains of the carriages protrude somewhat, hollow and ghostly in the smoky air.
A shuffling hooded man nears a little closer. I notice him out the corner of my eye but pretend otherwise, until finally we’re within speaking distance of each another, and I hope he has something to say, for I myself can think of nothing. ‘It’ll be a lot colder in the morning,’ he says. ‘Expect some frost. And don’t bother hiding behind a windbreaker. Are you afraid of spiders?’
Torn by the force of the impact, the connecting passage at the end of one of the rear carriages stretches skyward like a gaping mouth, directed toward daytime despondency.
Later I see the shuffling hooded man again, crouching beneath a roof of corrugated iron, warming his hands over the few flickering flames left to him, safely out of sight of the authorities. ‘Never fear,’ he says, ‘sunlight will hold up the preciousness that was originally planted in the virgin earth. Don’t you worry now.’
There’s no light in the coach but still plenty of coal, and it makes no sense to speculate. Several of the carriages lie wedged together due to a whim in cursive scratching. The backup safety system never celebrated any flow of success, not even a trickle. And still the shivering notices continue to pile up. 'What about the tip of the final, flattened carriage?' Well, for starters, it couldn’t keep on carrying the burden. Then one of the other committee members points over his pencil and says, ‘Now, despite all the disregard for duty you so eloquently displayed the last time we requested your assistance, we are still obliged in asking you to return once again to that smoke filled hallway. Turn your jacket collar up if you have to, make good use of a scarf, and tuck your hands somewhere away from the grisly scenes going on all around you. Just remember to take your time, have a good look around. Try to notice any discrepancies, anything unusual. Perseverance here is the key.’
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