One

"One"
By
AP Hadley

train tracks twist through treacherous tight tunnels 

Atop them a single engine pulling a single car

The conductor, a man with no aspirations and an addiction to his prescription, stares lazily at the hazy cool light emitting from the horizon

20 years of complex thought and formal education claw at the back of the man's mind but only images of suits and scoreboards reach the forefront of his thought

A cold cup of coffee that will never be consumed sits before the man

The brew is a special one from the heart of Columbia

The beans were plucked from the earth by the hands of a worker who will never own a television set because he saved his measly earnings to buy a pair of imported Nike sneakers in a vain attempt to impress a local girl he has loved since he was 11 years old

What he doesn't know is that her heart belongs to a gentle older woman born to honest people with a heart of gold

Their love ever a secret

So he continues to pluck coffee beans that get brewed and stored in cups only to go cold and never be consumed

And the conductor continues to flip his switches and pull his levers as he has done countless times on countless occasions 

The job so menial he no longer pays attention to the surrounding landscape or the passing cars

Or the moose in the field on the right

that would die a year later when a semi driver would plow into it after taking the 4th energy pill of his night

Trying to get his shipment of gaming systems to the store in time for the holiday deal 

he violated company policy and pulled an all-nighter

When his truck would slam into the moose, a chunk of antler would get lodged in his upper torso and he would require emergency surgery

Luckily the driver would survive and the experience would lead him to find Jesus and start going back to church where he would meet his beautiful wife who would die of leukemia a mere 6 years later

He would find the end of his own life on the edge of the office building he worked at after retiring from trucking

Only one person would attend his funeral

But the conductor didn't see the moose and he would never know about the trucker or the accident or Jesus

Ever did his train go on, never veering off the tracks

After several hours the destination was reached and the conductor signed the manifest stating his single car pulled by his single engine had made it

The woman at the counter would smile at the conductor and he would think how pretty she was

When she had been born the name given to her was Adam and her blanket was blue

Throughout her childhood she would be forced to swing bats and wear shoulder pads

Her first suicide attempt was at the age of 13 when she told her friend Mike that she didn't feel like a boy and he called her a word that was 6 letters too long

The stress and anxiety lead her to a rope tied around a ceiling fan dotted with sports stickers

her mother was home and heard her struggling 

Her mother would never understand but she was still sent to a mental health facility to cope with the depression

7 years of counseling, therapy, monthly shots and an unsupportive family later she would try again using the exhaust from her car 

Her partner, a gentle guy from the city that she had met in a college class about economics, would come home and find her passed out but still breathing 

He would hold her crying and begging for her to wake up

When she would come to, she would see his hard cheeks lined with tears, and she would note the relief in his eyes and he would kiss her, holding her tighter, sobbing

They got married last month and are going through the adoption process

The conductor smiled at the pretty girl and headed out to his cookie cutter home, ready to do it all again tomorrow