Inside The Snowglobe

Anyway on to today…I’ve never been on a train before but like they say…(who is THEY anyway?) there is a first time for everything. Today, I hopped on a train for the very first time. So far I like it, which is good considering that we’ll be on this thing for quite some time before reaching Italy. I catch myself staring out the windows as if hypnotized by the tiny towns and villages that we ride by. It’s as if I’m traveling straight through a Christmas snow globe, complete with fluffy, crystal white snow, and little cabin style homes complete with dark wooden shutters, stacks of freshly chopped firewood, and the occasional wrap around porch. The train goes on. Now we’re in the mountains and most everything is gently covered with a layer or two of freshly fallen snow, down to the twig of every tree in sight as if sprinkled with powered sugar. We pass old stone castles, rolling hills, and deep blue lakes. The view however, isn’t the only thing I will remember from this train trip through the snow globe land. There is one more thing, a sad one, in the way that just makes your stomach drop and back of your throat heavy. We had been on the train for little while, the train stations came and went with no thought or consideration, that was I mean, until she got on the train, a cute elderly woman standing in front of the window outside our car. You know those old movies when two lovers are about to part at a train station, and one has to leave on the train while the other is left standing there alone? You know, that moment when the train is just starting to crawl away and both parties are helplessly waving goodbye? Today I saw just that, I broke my heart. I could hear her soft voice and sniffle as she talked through the window. I couldn’t understand what she was saying, I didn’t have to. The train started to move and I soon saw who was talking to, her kids I assume, and they began to wave. She stood there pressed against the window till they were no longer in sight, then grabbed her bag and walked off. I hated that she was alone, perhaps because it made me think of my mom. In any case we are now sitting at the Austrian, Italian border and waiting for the train to take off again…