The Old Man Train Driver

Photo by Goldenfire

The Dream:

My mum took me to some place where there was an old man. My older cousins were there too. The man sat on a stool in front of us and said “I used to know you all when you were young.” My cousins all immediately recognised him and started crying and hugging him, and one of them apologised to him over and over. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” she said and cried and hugged him.

I didn't recognise him. He came over to me for a hug and I avoided it. “Sorry, I don't know you,” I said. He looked really sad, but accepted it and went back to my cousins. I went to ask my mum who he was.

“You should know! He's old and he's been sick this whole time.”

I felt guilty for forgetting him, but I still didn't remember, so she said she'd give me a clue.

“He's an engineer.” That didn't help at all. I was still confused. “He drives trains,” she continued. I thought hard and remembered when I was young there was an old man who drove trains and was really nice. It must have been him.

“I think I remember,” I said.

My mum went and got the old man and led him over to me. “She remembers,” said my mum.

The old man sat on a bench opposite me, and we stared at each other in awkward silence. After a while, the man said “Hello.”

“Hello,” I replied.

The awkward silence continued. Finally, he got up to leave and I felt guilty because he looked so sad.

“My mum tells me it was you who used to drive the train,” I blurted out.

“Yes,” he said, and smiled.

“It was fun.”

“You used to love the train,” he agreed.

Then he walked back out to the room where my cousins were, and I felt a little less guilty.

While I waited until it was time to go home, I went to the activities room. It had tons of pictures other people had coloured in, or drawn, as well as some coloured pencils. I got a black pencil and started writing messages on the papers.

My messages were things like “Geoffrey is awesome.” (Geoffrey is my brother.)

Soon all the papers were covered in my scribbles and messages, so I had to carefully cut them out of the pictures other people had made so I could take them home.

After that, I wandered around a bit. I found a room with a lot of shoes in it, and grabbed a couple of pairs that I liked. It was the storage room next to the sandpit.

Finally, it was time to leave. We all gathered in the same room for the old man's goodbye speech. “As you all may or may not know, my name is Donald Trump,” he announced.

“Isn't that someone else?” I asked.

“I may have changed my name in my old age,” he replied.

 The Reaction:

Oh no! Call the cops, I married a shoe thief!... But at least she knew Donald Trump.