The Gold Coins of LeBreton
STSC Symposium "Trains"
The story below is my submission to the STSC Symposium, a monthly set-theme collaboration between STSC writers. The topic today is “Trains”.
Visualization
Sometimes, in the summer, after we’re done washing the dishes, we run over to the railroad tracks and play. It’s easy because we all get an equal section to play in, inside the metal tracks and then we sit in between the wooden sleepers and play. Sometimes we combine whatever we’re doing but most often we just play our own solo games.
I never knew what any of these things were called but I looked it up once when Anna and I were in the bank building. There’s a terminal and it still works. I know you won’t believe me but I don’t care. I haven’t told anyone about it, and I won’t. Not even to Anna. She would tell everyone.
Yesterday we ran over to the railroad tracks and played. The dandelions are blooming now, and my railroad section had a whole bunch of them. They make funny sounds when you tear off the stems. A fresh and crunchy sound! Then a white liquid comes out of the stem and it creates stains in the palms of our hands. Terry often uses it to draw things on her arms.
I played coding. I sat on a sleeper and then I lined up 60 rocks on the left rail and 10 really large dandelion leaves on the right rail. Then I did some nose breathing and calmed myself. Then I placed my right index and long fingers on my left wrist and counted my pulse. For each breath in I counted 12 pulse beats, and then moved one rock over to the first dandelion leaf. For each breath out I visualized something that was connected to the metal tracks far far away.
Anna came over and started talking about a gold coin she had found, but I didn’t want to listen. I had just moved over my 24th rock and my image had just become clearer when I was interrupted. I instantly knew it was going to take too long to recover to try again. I gave the rocks a brisk swipe and they flew in all directions. You can’t use the exact same rocks twice. It doesn’t work.
Anna held the gold coin between her four fingers and smiled.
“It’s real! See?” Anna bit into the coin and smiled even wider.
I had no idea why she bit into the coin and I didn’t want to sound stupid, so I didn’t ask why. By now everyone had noticed the gold coin in her hand and we gathered around to see it. It was a round disc and it did look like gold. Even I could see that there was an image of something on the coin. A rectangular shape that was sort of sticking out of the coin. I wished I could see better. If only my glasses hadn’t dropped into the crevice when I crawled into the bank building last year.
Anna held the coin in her palm so we could touch it. When I touched the it I also saw the details. It was a train. I knew it was a train. It was a train because I had seen one as an image on the wall near the library building. But I didn’t say anything. Everyone were mostly oohing and aahing about the gold.
“Where did you find it?” Terry asked. Anna pointed to the tracks about six sections away from my spot. Everyone ran over there yelling about maybe finding more of the coins there. No one found any more coins. Then we went back home.
Manifestation
Today I went to the bank building alone. I was really supposed to go to the medical building to get more supplies so I went there first and then to the bank building on the way back. I always look for new glasses and I found a pair that made me dizzy. I put them in my pocket and continued on to the bank building.
It’s a bit of a hassle crawling in, because the first floor has collapsed. Most wouldn’t go in because it’s not stable. I’m small and light so I don’t worry. Once I was up on the third floor I went straight to the terminal. The lights were still on! I typed ‘trains’ and it showed me trains and railroad tracks. I looked at the information for a long time before I typed ‘train on gold coin.’
It showed me images of gold coins with trains on them. I looked at them, one by one, but didn’t recognize Anna’s coin. All these coins had writing and numbers on them. It dawned on me that I had been stupid and not paid attention to the rest of Anna’s coin! There must have been writing on it. And numbers. Then I typed ‘train on gold coin Ottawa’ and waited.
A bunch of Canadian gold coins showed up on the screen, and I spent a long time looking at them. I had to sit close to the screen so I could see details. I tried the glasses I had found but they didn’t work for this kind of looking. Then I got a new idea and typed ‘train on gold coin Ottawa LeBreton Bank.’ I was inside LeBreton Bank. My eyes were tired from staring at the screen.
It showed me the coin. Next to the coin was an image of a train. The same train that was on the coin. This was a special coin and only 1000 coins of its kind had been made. I read that these coins had been lost during a train derailment outside Ottawa in 2030, and only 24 coins had been recovered. I had a terrible headache and looked down the corridor toward the only window. It was getting closer to sunset. I had to leave because I couldn’t see well in twilight.
I grabbed my backpack and cleared the terminal screen. I put a little piece of fabric that I found on the floor on top of the lighted button of the terminal. Then I thought of something else. I typed ‘trains now near LeBreton Ottawa.’ It took a while and a map showed up on the screen. I studied it until I found LeBreton. Then I looked and looked until I saw it. A purple dot that was blinking on a dotted black line. It was a train! I put my finger on the screen so I could be sure. I traced the black dotted line a long time, and it was possible for it to travel to LeBreton!
I quickly typed ‘please send a train to LeBreton Ottawa.’ Then I crawled out into the twilight and was both scared and a little bit happy at the same time. I think 24 visualization rocks could work after all. It was completely dark by the time I got home. My headache was gone.
Realization
They arrived a week later. Two men and and two women. On a train. I heard it first. I was on my 39th rock when I felt the vibration under the dandelion leaves. I knew exactly what the train looked like before I saw it. The vibrations told me. It was exactly as I visualized it. This time the image stayed with me and it was clear. I stood up and yelled for everyone to get out of the tracks, now!
The locomotive was silver. The three carriages were silver and blue. It stopped right where we had played and it probably killed a lot of dandelions. We hid inside the station and looked through the dusty window. They found us right away and lined us up outside on platform 1.
“All right, hand it over!” said one of the women and looked at each of us. She had a kind voice but looked very tired. She had a scar on her forehead and her red hair needed combing. One of the men was holding a large gun with both his hands, and he moved it toward us, but the other man slowly pushed the gun down and shook his head. None of us said anything. I was wearing the glasses I had found and it helped a little because I didn’t want to miss anything important.
I knew what the woman wanted and why they had come here on the train. It was all my fault. I knew now that I had manifested my visualization. My dream had come true. I had dreamed of seeing a train for so long. The rocks did work after all but not the way I had intended. The gold coin had ruined it all.
“Scan them!” said the man who wasn’t holding the large gun. The second woman was holding a metal stick and began scanning us. She had short hair and wore sunglasses even if it was cloudy. She moved fast and chewed on something that made a wet sound when she opened and closed her mouth. I couldn’t see what it was, but it seemed stretchy. Anna was last, and the scanner began to beep in front of her head.
“Open your mouth!” the man commanded. He also looked tired, and his clothes looked like he had worn them a very long time. He had a beard and long hair so it made it difficult to see exactly what he looked like. Anna smiled and opened her mouth. On her tongue sat the gold coin. She flicked it with her tongue and bit into it!
“It’s real! See?” she laughed. The man with the gun said ugly words that I won’t repeat here, but to summarize: he questioned who had programmed Anna. Then he grabbed the coin out of her mouth so forcefully that one of her front teeth flew out, and we saw a bit of blood on her lips. Anna stood quietly and looked scared.
“One of you sent for us. Who was it?” The woman with the kind voice looked at me. I nodded my head so it moved only a little. Then I quickly moved it side-to-side in a similar small movement, to message her that she should not tell anyone else. She understood and nodded a response to me. I could see it even if it was a bit blurry.
They spent the rest of the day scanning the area and found 432 gold coins. I know because I watched them and kept count with rocks. I sat in a new spot further up the railroad track, about 15 meters from the train. I put the rocks in piles of 50 on large dandelion leaves that Terry brought to me. The man with the large gun came up to me and put his right boot on the sleeper next to me.
“This must be the screwiest one! Look at it, lining up rocks on a leaf.” Then he walked back to the other man and they began to talk about the train ride back and how to deal with the locomotive. The short-haired woman kept scanning for coins.
“She’s counting the coins. She’s counting the coins,” said the kind woman loud enough so that the others could hear her. They ignored her. She bent down next to me and touched one of the rocks. Her long hair covered her face and she stayed that way for a long time, eight deep breaths to be precise. Still and with her hand on the same rock. It was rock 400. When she finally lifted her head I could see she was crying.
“How long have you been here?” she whispered so that only I could hear. I understood that she really meant to ask me if I wanted to come with her on the train to a better place. I was honest and breathed in through my nostrils so I could tap into my central focus point:
“It’s difficult to estimate quantitatively, but I can tell you what it feels like: Forever. We’ve been here forever.”
Did you enjoy this story? Here is another one with a similar vibe. It’s called The Robots Know Me Well. If you’re more into insults and snappy dialogue, try An Observer of Nature.
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Bravo. Great work.
This was stunning, a surreal transition from childlike innocent moments and sweetness to an ominous disillusionment when strange grownups intrude. Very good.