Miss Prior - Book #1

Chapter 3

The train journey was boring, to say the least. All sorts of different people passed by and sat next to her. Every few stops, she'd see someone leave just to briefly greet someone new. It was rather interesting to see the many lives pass by. Two small children sat with their mother, all three of them having curly mops of blonde hair atop their heads, the littlest child clutching a very small case in her tiny hands. An older, greying man sat alone holding shakily a small photo of a woman of around mid-sixties, a melancholy look shifted across his drooping facial features.

The journey lasted longer than she had initially anticipated, in all truth she was extremely lucky that the train did sell some small bites of food, otherwise she would have perished. That may be slightly overdramatised, but Mollie really wasn't about to disagree. As the train slowed at another of the various platforms, she opened her eyes and lifted her head from its spot resting against the cold window. Almost instantaneously, her eyes lay upon a large sign reading 'London' (along with something else she didn't care to read) and saw some rather large buildings in the background. A grin spread across her lips.

Even from inside the train, the quiet hissing of the steam was easily heard and Mollie gained comfort in the fact that she wouldn't have to hear it again that day. Earlier in the journey, she had got out the letter from Ada and by this point she probably had read it over a hundred times. She was confident that she could now recite every scribbled word to perfection. Her bag felt lighter in her hand and her spirit felt the most agile it ever had in twenty-one years.

Enthusiastically, she seemed to bound off the train, happily staring as it drove slowly into the distance. She was infinitely thankful for the chance to stretch her legs after the infuriatingly long ride. The lower half of her body ached profusely; her shins were definitely the worst affected. Mollie bent down slowly to rub her hamstrings, her eyes scrunched up. The pain seemed worth it.

Smoke billowed out of large factory chimney tops, giving the air a murky grey colour. You could taste the soot in the back of your throat. It scraped the walls of your a oesophagus, causing you to cough. Despite all this, Mollie felt comfort in this place. Something about the area felt familiar but an unfamiliar aura surrounded the city. Mollie didn't think much about how the city felt, more about what she felt about it. It was strange.

She began to walk out of the large station, pushing past the masses of people shoving to get to a train that hadn't even arrived yet. Mollie had never seen that many people in one place. The only time she had seen a large body of people would have been at her school, and even that was fairly small due to her location. The majority of people seemed quite upper-class, brandishing large wooden canes in their hand and holding their hats down to their head with the other. She couldn't help but feel suddenly out of place.

Once she had left the platform, the bustle subsided only marginally. The broad street she had stepped out onto was cobbled and cabs flew up either end of the street. People spoke loudly as they shuffled past Mollie, the sound of impending horse hooves came and went each time a new cab went past. Everywhere she looked, there were more people. She never new how so many human beings could gather in one concentrated area for no other reason other than socialising, it quite frankly baffled her.

Her vision began to blur, so she began to persist through the masses of men and women walking in the opposite direction as to where she was going. Luckily, an open outstretch of pavement appeared. A few boy of around 16 loitered around the large looming gates and a woman seemed to wait patiently for something, her hands were clasped in front of her. As Mollie was distracted, a cab pulled up and the woman smiled and climbed in. Of course, Mollie thought. So she waited herself.

Sure enough, a cab did indeed pull up and Mollie raised her eyebrows at the level of urgency everyone in the city seemed to possess. When no one stepped up to claim a spot in the cab, Mollie decided to take that place. The inside was cramped and she was thankful that she was alone as it would be even more confined.