Hello

"Excuse me, excuse me! Is this the train for Waterloo?"
"Pardon me Love, you'd better get on if you're going."
"Oh, yes thank-you. Is this the train for London?"
"I'm sure it'll take you where you're meant to be going, can you manage?"
"Yes, I'm alright now, I just like to be sure, you know?"
Cheerful orange carriages with smart navy blue seats welcome the rushed traveller and smoker as they sit heavily, landing and exploding dust and old ash. The grimy windows display a pleasant wintery wet scene of dusky countryside. Wearily the train gets underway.
A young man in his early twenties sits across the train aisle looking mournfully out of the window. The train slows to a halt at no particular place and the young girl begins to read. Her book 'Ways of Living' is not as interesting as she had hoped and disgarding the text she turns to the young man.
"Excuse me, have you got a light?"
He looks up from his tatty paperback and replies with a pained look,
"You what?"
"Have you got a light please?"
"Yeah, hang on..."
After a second of patting and squeezing several areas of his suede jacket, his rough hand appears holding a cheap lighter.
"Here ya go."
"Thanks."
Her cigarette packet appears to bulge pregnantly and she quickly remembers smoking ettiquette.
"Would you like a cigarette?"
"Yeah, thanks." he replies with a little smile creeping onto his glum face.
"Are you going to London for work or fun?" The young girl asks before the man can escape back into his previous mournful state.
Struggling he replies with, "Dunno, I guess I'll see when I get there."
More country with an occasional farm building jerks by.
"It sounds quite exciting, not having any plans to limit your time."
"Like I said, I'll no doubt see when I arrive what there is to do."
"I wish I didn't have to go back to University and carry on studying like last month, all the boring lectures and seminars, it gets so monotonous. What do you do?"
"This and that, I've not been working for about a year now."
"Oh really, why's that?"
"Oh, for various reasons..."
The young man drags on his cigarette and detaches himself from the conversation. He no longer looks at the girl but instead through the window. As darkness falls his reflection reveals a sneer of bitterness tracing across his features.
Uncomfortable the girl re-engages in her book but glances furtively over at the young man, now reading his own text and every now and then stealing a gaze out of the window.
After a while the young girl chances another look, only to be faced with the hollow eyes of her travelling companion staring at her. With an air of desperation but little expression he demands,
"What happened to you then?"
After a slight pause, still clutching her book the girl begins to speak.
"It was raining and I was just leaving my parent's house on my way to the pub. It was dark and I should have been more careful . Just like a headgehog I was lying there all splattered with mud and well, blood I suppose. I didn't quite understand what I was meant to do, when I couldn't see anyone, until...I was standing on the platform just now with my bags and things, so I just assumed I was going back to London for the start of my course."
She startles herself by quickly scanning the view out of the window and checking the other occupants of the relatively empty carriage.
"I'm, I'm not going up to London, am I?" she finally manages.
"I guess not." the young man responds not unkindly.
"What happened to you then?" she asks numbly.
"They found me in my cell, I'd been kicked to death and shoved under the bunk. My family were hardly able to I.D. me I was so badly beaten up, my head looked like a balloon. I found myself a the platform and just decided to get away from where I 'd been. It seemed like a good idea at the time."
The train's horn blows eerily as they scream into a tunnel. In the semi-darkness the young girl's horrified face turns from pity to compassion as she watches a cold tear streak down the man's cheek.
"What's your name?" She soflty inquires.
"Bill. What's yours?"
"Helen." She replies.
"Hello Helen."
"Hello Bill."