Travelling Time – A Short Story in Three Acts

Act I

The restaurant car is completely full. A man seeks for a seat holding a coffee mug. At the rearmost corner there is a small table occupied by a dark haired pale woman wearing a black costume. Her glimpse touches the man gently and a small, hardly noticeable gesture gives him permission to ask whether he can join her company.

They sit in silence for a long time. The man looks at his coffee while stirring it. From time to time he looks out of the window. Then he starts a conversation and describes his feelings, tells how tired he is on traveling almost daily.

– Time ticks away, he says, – hours and hours just for transition.

– Also that is life, says the woman in a quiet voice and watches how the landscape changes while the train runs in the stream of time.

– It would be better if traveling would need no time at all.

A woman stares the man directly in the eyes. The man startles the intensity of her gaze, the deep space and bright stars he can see in her dark eyes. He feels as if something deep inside him would like to let go and slip through her eyes to freedom.

– Do you really want that, she asks.

– Yes, maybe. After all I would then be at home much sooner.

– I can give it to you.

The man feels incredulous and tries not to look suspicious. He watches her white hands and feels an increasing sense of unreality, like a cold stone in his stomach.

– I can take your traveling time, she says. – The part you do not want to keep. I'll take every hour, every minute and every second of it. You arrive at your destination as before, at the same time with other people. But you'll not notice the time it takes. You will only notice that you arrive as soon as you leave.

He looks at her and she allows him to see the truth in her eyes. The idea of immediate arrival fascinates him. He does not want to always be travelling to somewhere, he just wants to be in there, most preferably at home and right now. However, he is unwilling to waive his travelling hours, unwilling not to live every hour that is granted to him.

– I will get back to you, she promises when she sees his hesitation.

She gets up and walks away while he watches. He feels how the moments adjust to their proper places, the train rocks and arrives at the station.

Act II

The station is full of trains and passengers. The trains stand silently beside the platforms and wait for the departure time. Passengers hurry to catch a ride before the doors close and the train quietly breaks itself from immobilization.

Two conductors view the emerging passengers. Some of these passengers are busy with their baggage and with their children. Students can be identified by their backpacks and headphones, by their relaxed carefree existence. Business travelers bear their briefcases with wrinkles on their brows, without being able to withdraw from the urgency and execution.

– Business seems to be hard nowadays, says a conductor.

– Yes, it seems so, agrees the other one, throwing a peppermint into his mouth.

– Have you noticed how the eyes of some businessmen glaze over as soon as they sit in their places?

– I have. They also sit motionless during the entire journey, quite like they are dead.

– Right. They come to life just before their destination.

– Business is tough, isn’t it?

The conductors board the train. The train departs without whistling, starting to pull itself through time and space.

In the congested restaurant car, a man orders a mug of coffee.

Act III

In the middle of nothingness three dark figures are watching each other over the table covered with a red cloth. The time has come to a standstill and warped itself to a coil, sleeping near reality like a blue cat.

– Does it work?

– Yes it does, especially on trains.

– Then we’ll continue to increase the need to rush. Expediting the pain does not work well any more.

– Should we tell them?

– To humans? They would not believe.

– What?

– That it is all part of their own death, the time which they do not want to exist.

– They would not even want to think about it.

– And they do not have time for it, either.

A dark woman reaches to the sleeping cat, raises it on her arms and strokes it lightly. The cat purrs and circles on her lap. Then it rises, stretches and jumps back to reality.

The moment uncoils and the dark woman sits in her place in the restaurant car. Her hardly noticeable gesture gives the man who is holding a coffee mug and seeking a chair permission to approach.

Read original ones in Finnish: Act I, Act II and Act III.