Nick Webster

Trainward Bound

             The trip was long and quiet.  Grandma asked some questions and tried to make some small talk, but I just tried my best to dodge real and full answers.  At this point, I mostly felt bad that I was planning on leaving this lady after she had been so nice to me all the time.

            The drive was wonderful.  The scenery was beautiful, but there was a lot of the same scenery after a while.  We drove along the river for most of the trip.  I saw the river and a lot of trees to the right-hand side.  There were plain fields to the left-hand side.  There wasn’t much traffic along the way, so eventually it was boring to watch.  I couldn’t really see much anyway.  I was too short and had to prop myself up to see a lot of it.

            After about an hour had passed, I finally decided to small talk a bit more.  I’m not sure if it was a good idea or not, but I decided I should give her something in return for her kindness.  I asked her about the two games in the living room.  She described them to me.  As I listened, I imagined myself playing with other people.  It was a fantasy I was hopeful to experience myself one day.

            In the game called, “Шашки” each player had an equal number of pieces.  You had to move the pieces one at a time and capture the opponent’s pieces.  The person who captured all their opponent’s pieces first was declared the winner.  It seemed like a pretty straightforward game that I could learn and play.

            The game called “шахматы” was more complex.  The object of the game was pretty similar.  You could move your pieces one at a time, and the object was to capture your opponent’s pieces.  In this game, however, there were six different pieces that you could utilize, and each piece had different rules for how it could move.  This time the object wasn’t to capture the last piece.  The object was to capture a particular piece: the King.  You needed to defend your King while simultaneously attacking your opponent’s King.  It sounded fun to play, but I may never actually have the opportunity to play it.  “Do you want to play when we get back home?” she asked.

            I froze at the question.  On the one hand, I didn’t want to lie and say yes.  I felt like I owed her the truth for all her help and kindness.  She deserved more than a boldfaced lie to her face.  On the other hand, I obviously couldn’t tell her the truth.  I wondered what she would do after I left.  Would she call the police?

            I just left my answer up in the air, “maybe.”  That way I didn’t have to dedicate myself to a lie, and I didn’t have to tell her the truth.  Honestly, I wanted to say yes.  I wanted to just keep this as the next chapter in my journey toward a normal life.  To know what it would be like to have someone in your life love you and care for you.  It was the one thing that I would give everything up for.  Well, that’s a silly thought.  I had nothing to give up!  But still… I knew it was too dangerous to stay around here.  I had to leave and travel far away from here.           As we approached the city, I made sure that I could see as much as I could.  I needed to find a train station, airport, or subway.  There wasn’t anything on the edge of town, but I would keep my eyes open.

            I debated on whether I wanted to obtain clothes first or just slip away right away.  I decided a mixture of the two would be best.  I decided that we would go clothes shopping, but I would steal a few items without her looking.  That way, if she had to describe me to the police, I would be wearing different clothes than what she would describe.  I’m not sure how much that would help, but it would be better than completely matching the description that she would likely give.

            As we moved into the city, I could see several buildings.  I was on the lookout for three specific words on signs: “поезд,” “аэропорт,” or “подземка.”  Those words meant train, airport, and subway.  I didn’t find any of those words before our first stop.

            When we stopped, I noticed a couple of things that would work in my favor.  There were many people walking on the sidewalks, and there was a good amount of traffic.  This would make an easier escape for me to slip away and disappear.  There were many buildings that I could hide either inside or outside of, too.  This city kind of reminded me of the first city I was in, but the buildings were definitely structured differently.  I wasn’t sure or not, but it seemed like the purpose of these buildings was different than that first city.

            When we parked, grandma said, “I know several shops we could try around this area.  I hope you don’t mind walking around.”  That made it even easier.  Walking around the city would give me more opportunity to escape.  When we got out of the car, she said, “Make sure you hold my hand.  It’s easy to get lost in a big city like this.”  Great.  That’s exactly what I wanted, though.  I knew she wouldn’t be holding my hand the whole time.  Shopping required the use of hands, so it limited to my opportunities to escape, but it didn’t make it impossible.  Far from it.

            Since we were going to be shopping in multiple locations, I thought it would be best to simply observe my surroundings at first.  I hadn’t ever stolen anything before, but I needed to be aware of what might tip off the workers or even grandma.  Nikki had become a pro at it.  I knew she had stolen food and other items when we were living together in that first house.  She seemed to be better at everything than me, so I needed to make sure I was prepared.

            We shopped around for a while.  She picked out several pieces of clothing.  Sometimes she asked me if I like them, and on others she didn’t and just decided they would look ‘cute’ on me.  When she did ask, I just nodded and agreed.  It didn’t matter anyway.  But I didn’t want her to buy too much because they’d all go to waste anyway.  I was leaving with a new set of clothes, and that’s it.

            When we went to the check out, I noticed several things.  There was a tag attached to each piece of clothing.  The tags looked like they were the only defense against stealing, but I knew about cameras from Nikki.  I didn’t exactly know what they looked like.  But she mentioned that if we were every out in public, we would need to be cautious about cameras.  They were devices that record video and could be used to identify criminals.  I didn’t know how many would be in the store, but I think I found one on the way out.  It was a small rectangular metal box with a round black lens on the front end.  I assumed the black lens was where the camera records the video.  Great!  I now knew what I was looking for.

            I think I needed to make my move before we left the next store.  This was mostly because I didn’t know how many more stores we were going to visit.  If we were going to visit just two stores, it would be much more difficult to escape from her.

            After we walked out of the first store, I desperately needed to find a sign for some type of travel.  Fortunately, we walked further into the city and away from grandma’s vehicle.  This provided more opportunities to escape.  We rounded a corner, and there it was.  It was far down the street, but I could actually see a train station.  It was about a half of a kilometer away.  I just needed to make sure I wasn’t going to get caught stealing any or escaping from grandma.

            We walked down a couple of buildings heading toward the train station.  When we walked into the next store, and I immediately needed to find out where the cameras were.  There was one near the entrance just like the last store.  More importantly, I needed to see if there were cameras within the store.  I don’t think the camera near the door was going to see me take any clothes from within the store.  If I couldn’t identify any cameras, I needed to make sure that I was calm about it.  I didn’t want to raise suspicions from anyone working at the store.

            I only needed a pair of pants that was different from the one I was wearing or at least a shirt.  A lot of the pants look similar to each other, so I may only need to buy a different shirt.  There were a lot of different colors and styles of shirts, so that made it easier to find something different.

            In fact, I’ll do just that.  I didn’t want too much risk now.  I could always try to acquire a new pair of pants later.  Too much risk too early would not be good.  I also needed to get rid of the tag the any items that I took as well.

            As we walked around, grandma would stop and look at a lot of different items.  It’s a good thing she spent so much time just looking around.  At one point, I found a good opportunity.  The clothing racks were organized in a circular fashion.  I acted like I was looking at a shirt in one of the racks that grandma was not looking in.  I took it off the rack but then threw it on top of the pile.  I just hopped into the middle of the rack, so no one could see what I was doing.  I very quietly tried to remove a tag from one of the shirts covered by the shirt that I threw on top.  It was a very tough tag, but it eventually came off.  It wouldn’t come out with brute force, and I almost cut my hand trying to rip it.  Instead, I twisted the tag and kept twisting until it was easier to snap off.

            Okay, now I just needed to remove the shirt from the rack without making much movement.  Since the other shirt covered my shirt, I think I was good.  I slowly and carefully removed from the rack.  As quickly as I could, I stuffed it partially in my shirt and partially in my pants.  My shirt bulged out a little, but I should be able to manage.

            “Hello?  Where’d you go?”  My grandma started to worry about me.  I quickly exited out of the rack on the opposite side of her, so she didn’t see me in the rack itself.  I looked around quickly.  No one else saw me exit the rack.  I then circled back around next to grandma.

            “Sorry,” I said with my head slightly tilted like I disobeyed her.

            “You know.  I still haven’t learned your name,” she said.

            I decided I would give her a small victory before I left her.  But it would be a lie.  “My name is Alek.”  It was the only other name that I could think of that I had seen.  I saw a sign that had the name of Alek on it.

            She became very happy that she had learned my name.  Even if it was fake.  “That’s a very nice name.  I like it for you,” she said.  There was no way she was learning my actual name.  Well, I guess that was actually just the name Nikki gave to me.  I really don’t know whether that was my real name.  Who would get to decide that anyway?  I definitely didn’t want it to be the scientists who made me.  Nick was fine with me.

            I gave her a half smile, and she continued shopping on.  Next was one of the hardest parts, I think.  I had to escape without my grandma noticing and without employees noticing.  I don’t think there was much that could be done about the cameras.  I assumed they would spot my no matter what.  The camera was positioned in such a way where it was going to see anyone who walked out.  I had to see if I could sneak out right closely following behind another family if possible.  There were several customers in this large store, but I didn’t see any families that I could blend in with.  I decided to ask, “Are we going to any other stores?”  I tried to look busy by looking at other clothes while asking that.  I needed to make it look like I was interested in looking in another store.

            “Would you like to go to another store?” she asked in response.

            “Yes,” I said, keeping it very brief.

            “Okay, we can if you’re ready to now,” she said.

            “Not now.  I want to keep looking at clothes here.  There’s a lot of clothes,” I said.  The more opportunity I had the better, which meant that I needed us to stick around this store as long as I could.

            She continued to look through the clothes.  I needed to wait for the right opportunity.  I didn’t know when it would come, though.  I knew I needed to remain patient and wait for that moment.

            After several minutes of just looking, she had grabbed a few clothes.  “We’ll need you to try these on.”  She had only grabbed socks and underwear at the last store.  This time, she had shirts and pants for me.

            “What do you mean?” I asked.  I was confused.  You can wear their clothes without purchasing them?

            “There should be a changing room around here somewhere.  You can use it and switch into your new clothes to see if they fit,” grandma said.  Oh, that sounded wonderful.  I would look for opportunities to sneak out.

            “Okay,” I said.  We wandered around the store and finally found a changing room on the other side of the store.  That was the downside.  It was far away from the entrance.  The changing room was in a separate side room.  This side room had a ventilation duct in the main room, but grandma would likely be waiting for me right outside it.  I wouldn’t be able to sneak away through there.  If I could find another ventilation duct, it might be my chance to escape like I did in the laboratory that I was created in.  This one was in the ceiling, so I couldn’t climb up and enter it very easily without creating a scene.

            I entered the room with the new set of clothes that she had picked out.  I made sure I hid the stolen shirt within the other clothes when I changed.  When I finished changing, I went out of the changing room.  She looked at me and said, “It looks good on you!”

            “Now what?” I asked.

            “Now we have to pay for it, silly!” she exclaimed.  “Switch back into your other clothes, but at least we know these fit now.”

            I went back into the room.  Well, at least I could put on the stolen shirt underneath the other clothes, as long as that shirt didn’t show.  This way I could throw grandma’s shirt quickly without drawing much attention to myself.

            I came back out with the clothes back in my arms.  I reached to hand them to back to her.  Instead, she said, “Would you mind holding on to those for a minute?  There was a cute blouse back there that I wouldn’t mind trying on.”

            Oh, this just got super easy.  I think my eyes light up a little bit too much, but she didn’t notice or didn’t say anything.  She just turned around and started heading to a different section of the store, still toward the back of the store.  I followed her for now.

            She searched through a couple of pieces of clothing and found something she liked.  I just stood there patiently waiting.  She eventually said something to herself under her breath and said to me, “Wait right outside here on this bench,” as she pointed to a bench right outside the changing room where she had been waiting for me while I changed clothes.  She continued, “I’ll be out shortly.”

            Once she closed the door and started changing, I immediately dropped the clothes in my hands that she had picked out for me onto the bench.  There were some people around, but none of them noticed me randomly leaving.  Out of the corner of my eye, I know some people saw me walking alone as I got closer to the front of the store.  Nobody said anything, though.  I still don’t know what to expect, but I just kept looking forward without making eye contact with anyone.

            When I arrived toward the front of the store, I hesitated and stay somewhat hidden near a rack of clothes.  I looked for some workers, especially workers near the front of the store.  I didn’t want any workers to see me leave.  There were two that I could spot.  One was busy folding clothes but facing my direction.  The other was helping a person buy their clothes.  I would be easily spotted if I just left as they were doing what they were doing.  I couldn’t wait too long because grandma would be out of the changing room sometime soon.  I may just have to risk it.  If no one buying clothing had said anything, maybe the workers would remain silent as well.

            I waited for a few minutes to see if any of the workers would change their tasks or turn to face a different direction.  They didn’t.  What do I do??

            I decided to go for it.  They were both busy, so maybe there was a chance that they wouldn’t see me.  I stayed along the outside of edges of the front of the store along the clothing rather than in the walking paths.  That way, I would be less noticeable.  Unfortunately, if they did notice me, I think I would look more suspicious.  I had to take my chances.

            I quietly popped out by the front door.  I made sure that the camera had a difficult time seeing my face, but I didn’t want to look overly suspicious.  Once I pushed open the front door, I didn’t look back.  I exited through the second door.  I didn’t know if anyone was following me, but by now, my heart was beating so fast that I felt like it was going to jump out of my chest.  I turned to my left and started toward the train station.  I just kept walking and walking.

            No one immediately came out of the store to question me or call for the small person who walked out.  I think I could taste freedom by this point.  There were also a lot of people walking around on the sidewalks, so I would be hard to spot.  The only downside is that I would be easy to out if the people coordinated with each other.  I was probably the only small person walking alone.  Everyone else was bigger and older.  Everyone my size and age that I have seen so far have been with adults, so I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb.

            It took me a few minutes to arrive at the train station.  When I arrived, I listened for any distant noises of someone coming out of that store.  I didn’t hear anything.  I finally looked back.  I didn’t see anything either.  I need to make sure I’m on alert, though.  They may contact the police.  Grandma won’t have a picture of me, but I can only hope that none of the cameras had a good look at me.  If that was the case, the police would more easily identify me.  I already feel like I’m noticeable anyway.

            I wasn’t sure what my plan was going to be for when I arrived at the train station.  I assumed not just anyone could walk through the front doors and go on a train.  I thought about it as I approached the train station.  I think my best course of action would be to wait until the nighttime when everyone was asleep, and I could sneak into the station.

            Where could I go for now, though?  I looked around for a moment.  There were cars to hide under, there were alleyways, and buildings.  I wanted to find a sewer entrance, but I didn’t see any around here.  Hmm.  I also didn’t want a ton of people to see me when I went into my hiding spot.  I assume that either grandma or the police would come around looking for me, and I didn’t want a bunch of people seeing me.

            I decided to start with the alleyway.  It was the most isolated right now, and I could at least plan for where I would stay.  I waited for a few minutes until I didn’t think there was anyone watching.  I snuck into the alleyway and hid behind a large bin.

            It smelled pretty bad, but I guess it was going to be home for now.  I could hear some noises from a small rodent coming from a nearby trash bag.  Otherwise, it was calm and quiet around here.  I sat there for a while wondering what I was going to do for food.  I didn’t want to make too much noise as it might draw people over here.

            It was still early in the day, so I was going to spend the rest of the day bored.  And probably hungry.  I was used to that, though.  It’s a good thing grandma fed me so well this morning.