Raindrops on the Window
I looked past my own reflection from within a moving train and watched the evening landscape fly by. My mind was endlessly focused on nothing important, hopping from topic to topic without any direction, but my eyes began to fixate on drops of rain slowly creeping along the window. I had always felt the droplets were playing a game with one another, trying to race to the other end of the window first.
One drop, in particular, had not moved for a long time, and I found myself cheering for it to move faster. I watched as it struggled to inch closer and closer to the edge of the window to no avail, while another droplet quickly approached it from behind. Eventually, the two of them combined and began moving faster than anything else on the window, racing to their goal together, as one.
I took a deep breath before moving my eyes to the front of the cabin, where a small board of LEDs scrolled, identifying the next stop which was still an hour from when I would have to get off. There was hardly anyone else there at this hour of the night, and the only noise I could hear was the automotive hum of the train, itself. I found myself suddenly exhausted from a long day of travel and took off my glasses, folding them and hanging them off of the neck of my shirt before resting my head and closing my eyes.
As I began to lose consciousness, I felt a slight pressure on my shoulder as my partner rested his head against me. It was fine, we had plenty of time before our final destination, so we could take a 30 minute nap. It had been so long since we could take the time to be alone together, and I found myself helplessly smiling and whispering, "Good night." I reached my hand to his seat, trying to grab his hand and intertwine our fingers like we always did, but I struggled to find it.
Suddenly, my hair stood on end and I felt my heart stop.
I opened my eyes and looked to the seat next to me. There was no one there. Slightly delirious from my nap, I hastily put on my glasses and took a deep breath.
He was gone.
I again rested my head on the chair and stared at the LEDs at the front of the cabin as two separate streams of tears fall down my cheeks.
He was gone and never coming back.
I could only hope that somewhere -- wherever his soul had gone to rest -- he was thinking about me too.