One morning I woke up with a ticket under my pillow. I tried hard to discern what it was for or where it came from, but it was blank. Racking my brain I thought over it as I made breakfast.

After eating, I headed out, thinking I should forget about it and go about my day. I was walking from my porch when suddenly I saw others, just like me, with tickets in hand. They were lining up to ride a train which apparently had appeared literally overnight. I wasn’t sure where it was going, but I shrugged and handed the conductor my ticket. It looked like everyone in the neighborhood was boarding and I didn’t want to be left behind. I also figured I must have received the ticket for a reason that was worth figuring out.

The train was surprisingly massive inside. I slowly made my way to an open seat, taking in everything. In my car were a ton of people, each equally excited. I didn’t know what was going on but the spirit of adventure suddenly seized me, as I realized what I was doing. Oh my god am I high I thought, I’ve boarded a train that came from nowhere with a ticket someone put under my pillow.

“Good morning everyone” the conductor said with his voice surging throughout the train. “It is a beautiful day and the weather couldn’t be finer. We’re set to ride off any second now. Folks please make sure you’ve checked your ticket for your final stop, as there will be no return trips. Thank you for riding with us and enjoy the journey.”

“Final stop?” I asked out loud.

“Yeah, didn’t you look at your ticket before boarding?” A girl seated next to me replied.

“Well yeah… But it was blank. Is that normal?”

The girl giggled. “Well no, but you’re not the only one. I think that means you can get off at any stop you want.”

“Oh cool.”

She smiled “Hey if you want, we could get off together. I’d love to have an explorer buddy.”

“That’d be awesome! Let me know when you’re about to get off and I might join you.” I said smiling.

The train abruptly took off with terrifying speed. Inside though, the cars hardly shook. It felt smoother than a mother rocking a child’s cradle. I got up from my seat and started talking to the others. For the first few hours it was fun, we laughed played games, told stories. It was one of the best times of my life.

A few hours later we were in the middle of a board game, Clue I think, when Chadwick stood up. “It’s been real guys but this is my stop.” He said.

I raised my head from the board to look at him. “How do you know? The train hasn’t even stopped.”

Everyone laughed.

“The train doesn’t stop, it slows down and you just get off. Your ticket tells you the coordinates and you plan it accordingly.”

“Oh, yeah… uh, that makes sense.” I said, lowering my head and pretending to focus on the board game.

The train began to slow down rapidly and Chadwick headed for the door.

“Bye Chadwick!” I said as enthusiastic as I could. “I hope to see you again some time.”

A few people chucked and Chadwick smirked and shook his head.

“Peace out Chad” two guys in front of me said.

“Bye Chad!” several girls behind me said in unison.

Chadwick smiled then hopped out of the open train door as the train slowed down.

“Later peeps” he shouted as he jumped.

“We’ll be picking up speed in just a moment.” The conductor said from the speakers. “Remember to pay close attention to your stops folks.”

—

It’d been awhile since Chadwick had gotten off and everyone got into groups and talked amongst themselves. I was simply taking in the sights, wondering where I should get off. I inadvertently made eye contact with the girl who spoke to me when I first boarded the train, she had just looked up from a book she was reading.

“Hey, when’s your stop?” I asked. I figured I might as well take her up on her earlier offer.

She gave me a quizzical look, with a single eye brow raised before submerging her eyes into the text in front of her.

“I don’t remember.” She offered passively as she put the book to her face.

“Oh, well I guess you can let me know when you remember.” I said. I got up and decided to look around the car and see what everyone was doing. After about three seconds I sat down. “I’m bored.” I mused to myself. I felt around my pocket out of habit when I realized I had my phone on me. My phone offered all sorts of distractions that could pass the time. At least until I had the courage to ask the girl next to me about her stop.

A few minutes later the train hadn’t even begun to slow down and she was getting up.

“It was nice, um… meeting you.” She said damply. She could see I was poised to get up and she quickly added “I’m not leaving, I’m just going to the bathroom, and I should be back. But in case I don’t see you again, take care.” She walked into the next car and that was the last I ever saw of her.

I spent the afternoon talking to people in the car, trying to figure out where they were going, but they only half-engaged me. I was getting anxious because I couldn’t figure out where the stops were. There was no map anywhere that I could find, and no one would explain how exactly this all worked. I was already regretting boarding the train.

I caught one guy, Kyle, before he left. “How do you understand any of this man?” I asked.

“It might seem weird at first but there are steps to this, things that can help you recognize your stop.”

“I don’t even have an assigned stop, and I can’t tell when the train is stopping. Sure it slows down, but sometimes when it slows down there aren’t even people leaving. Furthermore, I don’t feel comfortable just getting off at random…” I let my voice trail, I didn’t want to make it seem like I was ranting.

Kyle shrugged. “I’m sorry man, I don’t know what to tell you, but I’m sure it’ll work out for you.”

Feeling like the odd man out, I decided to go into another car. Not only was it smaller than the car I’d been in, but only a handful of people where present.

“Hey” I said as I entered.

“Hello” a guy said, returning my greeting.

“Look, I’m just going to be honest, I don’t know where to go or how to get off this train. What are your stops? Can I follow one of you?”

Another guy, setting next to the one who greeted me smiled. “We don’t have stops, looks like we’re all in the same boat, or rather locomotive” he said chuckling. He looked to me and extended his hand. “I’m Arnold.”

“Pleasure to meet you!” I said as extended my hand and walked to shake his.

“I’m Carl” the guy next to him said.

“So what are you guys doing back here?” I asked, sitting down next to them.

“Well” said Carl “Whatever we want. The others are so focused paying attention to where they’re going to get off, but we can enjoy the amenities of the train. Complimentary Wi-Fi with movies streamed to our devices.”

“Making yourselves at home I see.” I said. “I suppose that is better than getting worked up about train stops.”

Over the next few hours I got to know Carl and Arnold really well. We played video games and theorized about the nature of the train.

“The train doesn’t stop right?” Carl started. “Well clearly once all the people with stops leave, everyone without a stop will be taken to a magical place. This is a magical train, I can feel it.”

“We could be sages!” Arnold said.

“I could just ask the conductor.” I said.

“No no, that’s okay” Arnold said.

“No it’s fine.” I replied. “I think it’s time I tried to get some answers.”

I made my way to the first car, but I found the conductor sitting calmly in the third.

“Who’s operating the train?” I exclaimed when I saw him.

“Ah don’t worry about it, it moves itself.” He said. “You have a question?”

“Yeah…” I paused and sighed then pulled my ticket out and showed him. “I didn’t realize this at first, but my ticket never had a destination. Why is that?”

“Ah yeah, that happens. Look kid, I’m not the one who prints the tickets, I’m just here to make sure everyone boards.”

“Are some of us just supposed to stay on the train then? Everyone else just seem to ‘get it’ but I didn’t. I couldn’t really tell when the train was slowing down or where to get off. Or any of that.”

“Well you can forget about all that, take a look outside.”

I turned toward the window and saw the world around us was warping and its hue was changing and I gasped.

“We’re approaching light speed, the great universal speed limit.” The conductor said. “There are no more stops for the train, we’ll be moving through time and space for eternity.”

“What? What about my friends and my family?” I wailed.

“You should have gotten off.”

“Where? It’s not like I would know where to go!”

“Anywhere. That was the point, to explore.”

“I would have been left to wander. Those weren’t my stops, I didn’t know anything about them. I wasn’t even comfortable getting off a moving train! Whose idea was this? This is terrible!” I shouted. “Why did this have to happen?”

“You can still jump before we reach the speed of light. There’s still time.”

I looked at the conductor incredulously, I couldn’t tell if he was being facetious or incredibly dense. “Even assuming I’d live, I’ll have no idea where I’ll be or where I would go. There’s nothing I can return to.”

“That seems like a personal problem, you could still do it if you really wanted to leave.” he replied.

I simply sat down onto the nearest seat and pressed my hands to my face in anguish.

“Don’t feel bad though, you and your two friends weren’t the only ones to get left behind. There aren’t many of you but what you lack in numbers you make up in comradery. Sure there’s no place now in the universe for you, but at least you’re not completely alone. As it stands though, we haven’t reached light speed yet, so what’s it going to be?”

I shook my head in disbelief as the limited options I had played over and over in my head.