Someone Else's Dream

Bags were packed and they were all ready to go. But for her, it was so much more. She imagined the whole journey over and over again. She thought of the stolen glances, the giggles, intertwined hands, and all that this journey was about to unfurl.

The train trailed off from the station with a happy troupe. It did not go the way she imagined it in her head. It was happy but not how she pictured it. She distracted her mind and tried to stay focused on the chats and bustle among the friends.

But then she began to see clearly - yes, she was imagining it all. She was making it all up in her head and so fiercely defending and protecting her ideas because she wanted to.

She slowly made her way through the bustle to the compartment's door. She sat there with her eyes closed, imagining the stories untold and lips unkissed. She had to come to terms with the fact that they were not looking for the same kind of love. She needed to make peace with that soon before the train reached and the journey took on.

In a few minutes, she opened her eyes and tried to really feel the wind on her face. She looked at everything moving past her at such pace and then all of sudden she felt okay.

She realized that she probably stayed too long in this space she made up for herself in her mind and she almost forgot the expanse of the world around her. "But once you sense that vastness, once something reveals it, hope emerges, whether you want it to or not, it clings to you."

She enjoyed the wind on her face for a while and then walked back in to join all the madness. The trip showed her everything that she'd forgotten to imagine when she began the journey - everything that mattered.

And yet, years later she looks back at the journey and feels caught in the middle - of things that really mattered and things that she thought would.

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