Train Ride

The silence of the night was exceptionally beautiful. There was a certain loveliness behind all the darkness softly punctuated by the orange glow of the street lamps. The world was winding down around him, but for Mike, the night had its own invigorating aspect. He was on the late night train that took him from Chicago to Champaign, a stomping ground back in the day wihle he was still an undergraduate of the engineering school.

The train taxied out of the station ever so gently that it was a while before he realised that it was moving -- he had thought that the lights outside were somehow moving and scanning the train as though it were a part of some massive scanner. He laughted lightlyt to himself when he realised the ridiculous notion that he had come up with.

Beside him sat Aileen. She had met up with him out in Chicago, after he had flown there from his embarkation at Narita, having spent the last three months in Tokyo for work. They had fallen in love a year back, and this was their big reunion. She sat next to him on the train, window seat, her aquiline nose and high eyebrows set distinctly against the Chicago night skyline. On the opposite side of the aisle, an engineering student was chatting up the young high school girl who was visiting her sister at the university at Champaign.

Mike felt annoyed. The beauty of the darkness and his girlfriend were marred ever so slightly by the amourous advances of the poor engineering student who probably had a severe lack of female attention. Mike knew -- he was an engineering student once after all.

``What is it?'' Aileen asked.

``Oh nothing. Just thinking about things, that's all.''

``I see. Don't need to feel annoyed -- am I not here with you?''

Mike sighed. He was still as easy to read as ever to her, and like each time, he was grateful. There was just something satisfying to have one's intention clearly interpreted with the minimal amount of words used. But there was always that fear, the fear that one day all those non-communicating communication would break down due to the contempt that comes from familiarity. He never told Aileen about his fear of this, but somehow, he knew that she would have known already.

Mike ignored the banter occurring opposite him and contented himself with looking ouf of the window through Aileen's face.