The heat of summer was stifling. Natascha, didn't want to go back to her apartment in the city. Writing with the girls gave her a different kind of confidence. She hadn't felt this brave since she was 19. There was something so completely unfinished that she had to face; this was the time to do it.
The train was packed and had been stood still over 20 minutes. Without the engine running there wasn't any air conditioning. Two young tanned men sat across the aisle from her, equally joking and jousting each other. Natascha tried to push away her thoughts: "Why are you going in this direction, there is no point, turn around"!
Natascha noticed a pink faced new born staring at her with big, wide innocent eyes, looking over the shoulder of her mother. She bobbed her baby up and down in a somewhat flustered manner. Occasionally, she stopped to fan her babe who didn't seem to care either about the ever increasing heat in the cramped carriage or her mother's increasing frustration at the halted train.
Natascha noticed a pink faced new born staring at her with big, wide innocent eyes, looking over the shoulder of her mother. She bobbed her baby up and down in a somewhat flustered manner. Occasionally, she stopped to fan her babe who didn't seem to care either about the ever increasing heat in the cramped carriage or her mother's increasing frustration at the halted train.
Natascha crossed her eyes at the baby girl who giggled and gurgled back at her. Feeling her panicky thoughts subside, Natascha took out a glow stick she had used with the girls and started to wave it about in front of the happy, pink chubby face staring back at her. Natascha closed her eyes and stuck her tongue out, but when she opened them again, it was the mother staring back at her. She quickly closed her mouth and looked down, blushing. The mother blew air on to her child's smiling face that was as crimson as a red admiral. She turned to Natascha with a smile that crept across her sweltered face, damp with sweat. Natascha, gently handed her a silk fan. There was a silent recognition and acceptance of each other that Natascha had often felt with other women in times of uncertainty and crisis. An invisible bond of a women's condition across the ages. Those situations change and shift with time, yet the same struggles seem to remain.
Suddenly the train lurched forward, knocking them both back into their blue seats. "Finally" they almost chorused. Natascha arranged herself back in the seat as the air conditioning kicked in followed by sighs of relief and mini cheers throughout the carriage. The pink face bobbed up and down to the movement of wheels on the tracks and gurgled back at Natascha through train seat's gap. Natascha waved back at her, feeling her spirits instantly lifted by this new hope in front of her.
This is part of a longer story from The Tiger's Den:https://www.wattpad.com/220303912-the-tiger's-den-something-unfinished_-a-new-hope
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