“Goodbye, Ms. Sia. It was my pleasure to have served you. This is my stop.”
The Elsewhere Express
Loudspeaker Announcement
Good evening, passengers. We would like to inform you that the conductor has retired after years of outstanding service to the Elsewhere Express. We wish the conductor the very best as she embarks on the next leg of her journey. We would like to assure you that a new conductor will be stepping into the role shortly and request your patience and understanding during this transition period. Thank you and good night.
Week Six or Month Six or Year Six*
*Maybe Sixty
From the Passenger Records of Hiraya Sia
Raya
The conductor’s day began as it always did with a quick, icy shower and breakfast at one of the Elsewhere Express’s dining cars. Today, she craved the Dragonfly’s chicken congee. Raya made a stop in the middle of the train car’s cobweb bridge. She looked down at the sea of clouds. It was calmer, she thought, than the ocean Lily had leapt into.
Raya had seen her future when Lily sank beneath the waves. She refused to be dragged down by the same weight. She stuck her hand into her upcycled tote and pulled out the only thing left inside it, a candy bar long past its expiration date. She had given the rest of the bag’s contents private funerals, sending them off from train cars that suited them best. The last item she had said goodbye to was the binder containing her anatomy notes, in a bonfire on a beach set aglow by songs. She looked over the cobweb railing, dropped the candy bar, and watched it fly up to the painted sun.
“Good morning.” Rasmus joined Raya at a rosewood table. “Who are we today?”
Raya’s hand flew to her face. Her fingers found her original nose and lips. She punched Rasmus in the arm. “Ha ha. Very funny. I knew I changed before I went to bed last night.”
Rasmus chuckled. “Is it my fault that you have a terrible memory?”
“Not terrible, just full. Just like my schedule. Preparing for the reopening of the gallery is taking up every spare second I have.” Raya had vowed to rebuild what she could and though she complained that it took up all her time, she welcomed exhaustion. The more tired she was, the easier it was to fall asleep.
“My version of the excess baggage tonic tastes a lot better than Mr. Goh’s, you know. It will help you make room for all the things that you do need to remember.” He tapped the side of his head.
Raya envied the light in his eyes. Rasmus had drunk Mr. Goh’s tonic soon after she had told him about what happened to Lily. He did not want to mourn long. As far as he was concerned, not a single event related to the stowaway had ever happened. Lily had passed on her cap to Raya and was enjoying her retirement, and everything on the train, except for a broken branch on the Leaf Lift, ran as it should. As for the clicking sounds Rasmus heard in his chest, he was certain that it was nothing to worry about.
“I can have the tonic sent to your compartment,” Rasmus said.
“Thanks for the offer.” Raya opened the flap of her satchel, showing off the single notebook she kept inside it. “But my notebook is perfectly capable of sharing the load.”
“How about your songs? Do you have room for them too?”
“Plenty.” Raya smiled and sipped her tea. “The ten purple notebooks you harvested from the supply room for me are more than enough. How many songs do you think I write in a day?”
“Not nearly enough. But seriously, Dev says that the songs you’ve written are excellent. They’re speeding up repairs.”
“Great. I’ve been trying to make up for backing out of joining the maintenance crew.”
“Dev understands how things work around here. Lily chose you to take over the most important job on the train. You had to accept,” Rasmus said, repeating the tale that he had made Raya promise to tell him, the story he had crafted and wished to believe. Raya had agreed because the story was mostly true. She did have the most important job on the train, a job that allowed her to keep an eye on the back door and anyone who might board it.
Later That Evening
The vintage boarding car had been faithfully re-created from the original designs that Rasmus had unearthed in the Archive. Raya had requested only one change. Instead of emerald green, the couches were upholstered in a gray fabric that borrowed its color from an overcast sky. Without any brass plaques to remember Q’s sacrifice for the train, Raya made do with a memorial to his eyes.
“Good evening.” Raya struggled to keep her smile in place. The face she had chosen for this evening had not smiled in a while. Its muscles were tight and hard, weighed down by years of frowning. Raya slowly curled her lips upward, worried that it might crack like clay. She had spotted a face with an easier grin, but there was no time to change. The evening’s new passenger had boarded.
“Where am I?” the passenger said. “What is this place?”
“Welcome aboard the Elsewhere Express.” Raya’s eyes roamed over the young woman’s face and the wisps of lavender hair framing it.
She had spent countless nights imagining what it would feel like to greet another version of herself, practicing welcoming her in the mirror. But rehearsing a spiel with her reflection was different from talking to a person who could talk back.
Raya stared into her old eyes, watching thoughts dart through them like the Wandering City’s hummingbirds. Thoughts crumbled as fast as they were constructed, questions and theories about whereshe was and what was happening to her flying across her other self’s eyes. Was she going mad? Was she having a panic attack? Was she dead?
