Train of Thought

An elderly couple sat opposite each other on the train. She looked out of the window, but he stared intently at her. Eventually he leant over and touched her gently on the arm. “Excuse me.” He said quietly. “But I’m certain that I know you.” She looked taken aback and replied. “I don’t think so.” “Yes. I do. You’re Celia Rudge, the famous actress. I’d know you anywhere.” The man insisted. The woman’s hair once long and raven was now grey and her once sparkling eyes had grown pale. But he thought that he would know her. “Yes. I am Celia Rudge.” She replied. Pleased to be recognised after all the years...here was a fan wishing for her autograph...how gratifying. “Yes. I’ve followed your long and distinguished career avidly.” The man continued. “I am so pleased to have met you at last.” The woman blushed proudly at being thought of so highly. “You are too kind sir.” “Not at all...In fact I still vividly remember your very first performance as if it was yesterday.” “Really...?” Her chest puffed out with the thought of still holding so much importance to the man. “Was that at the Criterion in Shepherds Bush?” “No.” He answered slowly. “It was at the county court in Snaresbrook.” “I…I don’t understand?” Her face looked blank; a nervous twitch suddenly appeared in her eye. “Please, let me explain.” The man said. “It was an outstanding performance...of remorse and sorrow that you fed the judge. Despite the fact you and your boyfriend had driven in a drunken state, knocking down a woman and a child killing them both, oh how the court wept with you, felt your pain. They decided you’d suffered enough allowing you to leave free and unsullied...I can still see you laughing as you left.” Her face had become frozen at these words. Yes, she remembered it so well, the images flooding back to her. “I also wept.” The man continued. “I have always wept. For the woman and the child were my wife and son. He was only three, barely old enough to say that he’d lived. I wept for them, I still do and I wept at the injustice of it all...I swore that they would be avenged.” There was a coldness filling the carriage and the woman was right to feel afraid. “I caught up with your boyfriend twenty years ago, watched him crying as I assisted him out of his tenth floor window. No acting could save him then. Nor for that matter did I hear him laughing.” The woman froze with fear. Yes, she remembered it well, the drinking...the laughing and the awful accident...images that she had pushed from her mind oh too easily. “But…I never meant it.” She said feebly. “It was so long ago, I am not the same woman. I….” “But, I am still the same man.” He spoke coldly as he removed his scarf from around his neck. “I have waited for this for forty years. I have dreamt of finally meeting you again.” There was a manic gleam in his eyes, as he slowly wrapped the scarf tightly about his knuckles. “And now the day has finally come. You fooled the court with your tears and acting skills. You were able to become a big star of the stage. While I was left to bury my darlings and cry alone….. What’s the matter Celia? Why are you not laughing?”