It had just begun raining outside on the lowly distant streets; Skylar Grace, making a quick note to prepare an umbrella, sunk deeper into her toasted warm parka jacket. Upon looking outside the window, the late evening world presented itself as a black sea of speeding Christmas lights and neon snakes. Being on a sky train seemed, right now, to be the equivalent to being on a flying car that’s racing through a dark, high abyss. One could barely see the edges of the railing; they only saw the moving, colourful city beneath it. Sky trains, Skylar decided, were one of the best ways of transportation. She couldn’t remember the first time she’d been on one; it was a fairly popular way of transit starting when she was young. It was always an adventure— a rollercoaster almost. The train could take you around towering skyscrapers and dive underground to the pitch black subways of Downtown.
Despite the warmth provided by many layers of clothes, Skylar felt avalanches as the cool metal frame of the train benches dug through to an uncomfortable spot on her spine. As she straightened up, a pleasant female voice filled the train car, “Next stop, Waterfront Station.”
A tousled dark haired boy, sitting slumped across the width of the train from her, perked up slightly at the sound. He was sleeping soundly moments ago. His hands stuffed in his pockets and long legs sprawled in front him. Now, he drew his eyes over to Skylar and pointed up in the vague location of the speaker.
“Is this where we get off?” he asked. Skylar nodded, then pointed her chin at the brown messenger bag resting next to him.
“Get out your umbrella, Theo. It’s starting to pour,” she said. What seemed to foreshadow a light drizzle while they were walking to the train station was turning out more violent than she had anticipated. The raindrops hit the sides of the train with a pop, as if they were ping-pong balls instead of small water specks.
Vancouver, they all thought at once.
Photograph by: Eden Chen
Article by: Leon Zhang