iPod Giveaway #4: Entry #2
I lost it. Damn. It took me a full 0.5 microseconds to realize it was gone. As if it had evaporated in plain sight. I should have known it would happen one day, but I didn’t. And now the pain is unbearable.
It happened in the new high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris. I had been visiting some relatives back in Holland and was now on my way home. Home, for me, is a small apartment in a large building near a now tiny Eiffel tower. I remember the days when the Eiffel tower seemed to rise above the city, a magnificent display of French pride. Unfortunately those days have been lost.
No, today’s world is different. It’s a world driven by technology, and cost-effectiveness. But yet it’s a world with magic, a world where the unexplainable still happens. Like it did today.
When I entered the train I could feel the magic. I was listening, intently, and looking around, somewhat foolishly. There was a girl at the other end of the cabin, staring straight ahead, not distracted by my entrance, as if she was both deaf and blind. I studied her for a while, fascinated by her silent composure. As the train started to move, I sat down. An old song protruded my mind. A manifest, by some long gone Canadian band. It seemed fitting.
And then, nothing. Poof, the music had disappeared. Slightly startled I searched my bag, thinking that’s where I had put it. Nothing there. I patted my jacket, not there either. It had disappeared, along with the music. And as I looked up, I noticed the cabin was empty.
The girl had disappeared as well.
