Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 This story is copyrighted by me.  This story is also for Alexis Seifret's
Birthday Celebration so why would you steal someone's birthday gift you big
meanie?



   This story is inspired by the Elvis song, "Mystery Train", lyrics of
which can be found
here-http://isuisse.ifrance.com/cd-elvis-presley-com-elvis-king/baselyrics/
mystery_train.html



   For Alexis' birthday I tried to write a story that I thought Alexis
would write if she had the time and the Elvis inclination.  Happy Birthday
Alexis!

   "Mystery Train" By Shon Richards



   The train I rode was sixteen coaches long.  That's all I really knew for
sure about the mystery train.  Oh I knew it goes more places in a single
night than is possible.  I knew it used to stop outside my house every
moonless night until my curiosity compelled me to board it one lucky night.
I also knew that some nights the coaches are from the Victorian era while
on other nights the cars are sleek and modern.  But those details changed
fluidly from time to time like characteristics in a dream.  All I really
knew was that the train she rides is sixteen coaches long.



   I should mention Jane.  There are no conductors or attendants but there
was always Jane.  The first time I boarded that train and every time I was
on board, she was there.  Tall, willowy and very pale, she was never timid.
She welcomed me onto the train with a firm handshake and a smirking smile.
I asked her what she knew about the train but she would tell me nnothing
except that the train she rides is sixteen coaches long.



   The train speed through great forests and a barren dessert that first
night.  We passed the time talking about books and types of honey.  Jane
was very smart and often funny in a self-deprecating kind of way.  We ate a
meal in a dining car that had no waiters.  She asked a lot about me, but
never offered anything about herself.  I didn't pry.  It was enough just to
be with her.



   In the morning the train stopped at my house.  I was reluctant to
debark. Jane assured me that the train would return.  I watched the long
black train take Jane away and I wonder if it would ever come back again.



   I went to work despite being up all night.  For some reason I was never
tired.  It was as if I had slept the night after all.  There were times
that day (and many days afterwards) when I wondered if it was all a dream.



   The next night, the train came around the bend.  The train came every
night from then on.  Every time I saw it, my heart leaped and for eight
months I don't think I slept a single night.  It was okay.  I had Jane and
she was better than any dream.



   We traveled to different lands every night.  One time we went through a
frozen wonderland where pale bears played by a lake.  Another night we
passed through a strange city where the lights were all green.  Some
nights, other people would board and Jane would greet each one as warmly as
she greeted me.  She would let them off in other lands and sometimes check
up on them.  I was the only one she picked up every night though.  I hoped
it was because of love.



   It might sound odd to fall in love with such a mysterious woman on such
a mysterious train but I did.  Jane never talked about herself but her body
did.  There was the scar below her chin and the story it suggested.  There
was the limp in her left leg and the twice broken wrist.  There was the way
she would laugh too loudly at times and then suddenly stop.  I asked her
many questions as we fell in love but the only thing she would say about
herself was that the train she rode was sixteen coaches long.



   Jane loved me.  I thought.  I thought she did the first night we made
love.  As the mystery train speed through foreign plains, Jane mounted me
and the slapping of our thighs was louder than the clacking of the wheels.
We kissed each other in new places and that was when I found the scar over
her right nipple and the burn over her buttock.  The train smelled of sex
when I disembarked that morning and it wasn't until the afternoon that I
realized that she never said she loved me.



   The next night we made love again but still she didn't say she loved me.
Jane also wouldn't answer any more questions.  The privilege of her body
didn't allow me any secrets.  Again, I didn't mind.  It was enough to know
that I was the only one she allowed on board.  Every time I saw the train
coming round the bend, I would whisper with pride cause she was mine all
mine.  I always assumed that she would reveal her secrets one day if I were
worthy or patient enough.



   We made love in every one of those sixteen coaches.  I kissed between
her thighs during a hour long trip through a tunnel.  She pulled me into
her on one of the sleeping bunks and when we had made love, we laid
together like husband and wife while talking about things I can't remember.
During one long journey through a rain forest, Jane knelt between my legs
and wouldn't let me rise for the entire night.



   Can you fall in love with a secret?  I knew nothing about her except
that she made me laugh and glow when she was around.  I was a better person
for knowing her.  I was more alive and my earlier existence felt false and
mundane.  Jane never told me who she was or how she got her long list of
scars but I didn't care.  My girl never told me how she found this long
black train or if she could control where it goes but it didn't matter. 
When I looked at that long scar on her chin, I knew why she rode the train.
That was all I needed to know about that sixteen-coach train.



   One day, I came aboard the train with a small box.  Jane's eyes turned
to tears when I opened it.  She didn't let me put the gem on her finger.  I
told her that we could stay forever on the train if she wanted.  We could
move into my house if she preferred.  Anything she wanted I would have
offered but she refused.  She asked me to give her time to think about it.



   I knew.  I knew when that long black train had taken my baby that it was
gone forever.
   The end.