Beauty on Platform Three
He was late this morning. The lockdown had begun to ease, there were more people in the station and most were wearing masks.
Luke looked down at his time table. Yesterday had been good. He’d managed to get a full set of South Coast numbers and WH Smiths had the latest issue of “Train!” in. He’d been happy. This was of course just window dressing for the main event at the of the week, They’d all been counting the days since it was announced two months ago in “Train!”. Dave was pretending that he wasn’t fussed, but Luke knew that Dave was as excited as the rest of them. He saw the 17:21 from Paignton arrive. It was seven minutes late today. Opening his ‘Big Value’ notebook and wrote down the number of the train, and made an asterisk against it, noting that it was late. Luke ran his hand around the rim of his threadbare baseball hat and adjusted the waistband on his faded black Matalan jogging bottoms. Looking across at the rails and thought back to the days when he stood at the top of his grandparents' garden waiting for the coal train to go past on the way to the refinery, now long since closed. Luke and his brother James would run up to the end of the garden and smile and wave to the driver. The driver would return the smiles and waves. He felt a stab in his heart when he thought about his brother.
“Oi Luke you knob!””
“Morning Dave. I like your t-shirt.”
“Yeah?” Dave smiled and pulled the Marvel Iron Man t-shirt over his swollen belly and patted his brown hair down, he was trying a variety of tactics to hide the fact that he was balding.
“My cousin gets them from America. Limited edition, you can’t get them in the U.K.”
“Yeah?” Luke was sure he’d seen the same t-shirt in Primark.
“Shit I had a skin full at the Spoons last night!” Dave looked sideways at Luke “Yeah I was hammered.”
“You don’t look bad on it.”
“Yeah well that me, constitution of an Ox.”
“Seen Gav?”
“Nope, look here’s Suz.” Dave sucked in his gut.
“Alright lads?” Suz stared at Dave’s Hulk t-shirt.
“You alright Suz?”
“Yeah good, you seen anything?” she tugged at her High Vis Security jacket.
“Nah, it’s been quiet.”
“Right, well, anything happens give me a shout.”
“You been on holiday? Haven’t seen you doing your rounds for awhile,”
Suz chewed her lip. “No I’ve been furlonged, well sorta.” All the time she couldn’t take her eyes off the Hulk t-shirt.
“RIght, well.” she walked off down the platform.
“She fancies me.”
“Do you reckon?” Luke wasn’t so sure.
“Yeah definitely. Did you see the way she was looking at me? She couldn’t take her eyes off me!”
“Do you want a Scotch Egg? They're on their best before date so they were on offer, Marks and Sparks.”
“Yeah go on then. Is that the new issue of “Train!”? Dave took it off Luke and started to flick through it.
“Alright losers?”
Dave’s back stiffened. “What are you doing here?”
It was Gavin. They never saw Gavin, Luke liked Gavin, Dave not so much.
“Thought I’d stake out my patch before Friday.”
“Friday? You’re not coming down are you?”
Gavin turned and grinned at Luke. Gavin was skinny, and had a pale parlour which seemed impervious to the sun, dark rings circled his eyes from too many late nights in front of a laptop, and his his haystack of blond hair which refused all attempts to be tamed.
“Hey, way to make a guy feel loved you old timers!” Gavin was two years younger than the other two, a fact he mentioned frequently.”Are you kidding? There’s no way I’m going to miss this Friday! When will this ever happen in Cardiff again?”
“Yeah well.” Dave said staring at the crossword in ‘Train!’.
“It’s gonna be great isn’t it Gav? What have you heard?” asked Luke.
Gavin shrugged. “Well, I was talking to Mike at the ticket office…”
“Mike at the ticket office.” Dave muttered under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
“I was talking to Mike from the ticket office and he said he couldn’t really say much.”
“What did he say?”
“They’re not sure if it’s going to stop. There’s talk that it might miss Cardiff Central entirely and just stop at Newport.”
“They can’t do that!”
“Why?” Luke could feel his eyes begin to moisten. A paper cut smile creased Gavin’s face.
“I can’t see how they could, after all they’ve got to get to Swansea haven’t they. Of course you know that it’s not the actual real... ”
“We know.” snapped Dave.
“Luke you know I’m sure I could get you a good place next to me, you’d see everything.”
“Ummm.” Luke looked down at his daps.
“But but, I thought we…” spluttered Dave “...we’ve been planning this for weeks...I’ve...I’ve bought a fold up camp chair from Lidls for us to take turns in!”
Gavin grinned.
“I don’t know...I said I’d stay with Dave, where will you be Gav?”
“Well if you want to sit with Gavin that’s fine, no that’s fine, it’s just means that I’ll get more of the chair but that’s fine. I’ve got to go anyway, I’ve got to - you know - be somewhere no it’s fine.” Dave stood up, the copy of “Train!” falling to the floor.
Gavin walked off like a toy soldier down the platform.
“He didn’t say he had to be somewhere before.” said Luke watching him disappear.
“Yeah I've got to nip off, going for a few jars with Mike.”
Luke was left alone on the bench, just in time to note down the 17:45 to Swansea. It was on time.
***
“ Luke felt like crying, it was like being back in school again. It wasn’t fair, Dave was supposed to be on his side. Luke clenched and unclenched his fits, got up and - without saying another word - walked off. ”
“You okay?”
“Yes. I am fine.”
Dave wasn’t fine. Luke could tell. It was the third time that morning that Luke had asked Dave and he’d answered with the same clipped answer.
Luke checked his watch again, took a sip of sweet weak tea from his flask, glanced over at Dave and checked his watch.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes I’m fucking okay.”
Dave had never heard Luke swear before and he didn’t like it.
“I was just…”
“If Gavin is so great why don’t you just be his friend. I don’t know why I bother with you.”
Dave was frowning so hard that it looked like his eyebrows were going to crash into his nose. Luke felt like crying, it was like being back in school again. It wasn’t fair, Dave was supposed to be on his side. Luke clenched and unclenched his fits, got up and - without saying another word - walked off.
Luke felt the boiling resentment of the unjustly slighted. He’d been looking forward to this day for weeks, months, and now it was spoiled.
Luke didn’t even care about the time, he didn’t know where he was going but blindly decided to head down to the forecourt. Maybe he’d try one of the Limited Edition Aeros he’d heard so much about. He was heading that way when he saw a ticket inspector and almost yelped with excitement when he saw the name badge.
“Mike Johnson” This was Mike that Gav talked about. Luke knew the names of all the rest of the ticket inspectors and this was the first time he’d bumped into the legendary Mike.
“I know your mate Gav!”
“Gav? Which Gav?”
“Gav that works in Wetherspoons.”
“Nope, don’t know anyone who works in Wetherspoons.” actually Luke didn’t know for definite that Gav worked there, but he’d once seen him go in at 6am holding a mop and bucket.
“Gav, you know, Gav, he’s always on platform 3, loves trains.”
“I don’t know who you’re speaking about mate.”
The ticket inspector looked Luke up and down.
“You a train spotter?”
“Yeah! How did you know?”
“Lucky guess. Aren’t you going to see our special guest?”
Luke took a look at his watch.
“Ooh! Ooh!” he ran as fast as he could back up to the platform.
“Oh no! Oh no!” he’d lost his place on the platform. Hot tears welled up.
After all this time, it wasn’t fair.
“Luke you knob!” he looked up and and in the distant scrum of men there was Dave. He’d put the camp chair he’d bought from Lidl out and was guarding it.
“I’ve kept you a place. Luke’s mouth spread into a big toothy smile.
“I thought…”
“I didn’t want to be be standing next to someone I don’t know.”
Luke looked down at his daps.
“I thought…”
“I know. It’s alright…”
Luke looked around and couldn’t see Gav, but that was fine.
“I can see it!” someone at the front shouted in a high pitched squeal. Everyone’s head turned round as though pulled by string.
“Where?”
“Where? I can’t see it!”
“Are you sure…”
Then gleaming in the weak afternoon sunlight it appeared. It’s arrival was serenaded by the click and flash of dozens of cameras.
“It’s beautiful.” Luke gauped.
The Orient Express glided into Cardiff Central station. It’s polished black engine shone, it’s metal work had been buffed to a fine sheen. It was even better than Luke had expected. Even it’s carriages seemed to push aside the mundane chip wrapper day. The engine driver smiled and Luke felt his arm raise and he waved. Luke took a cautious side glance at Dave expecting to see a look of derision on Dave’s face but he was smiling and waving as well. They looked at each other and smiled.