Chance Meeting across Time and History

The 9:27am Intercity Express from Central to Kiama was due to depart.

At the last moment a young Corporal from the Australian Army jumped on the train. The carriage door closed shut behind him, almost catching his gear.

“Saved again,” he thought. He walked up a couple of steps to the upper level of the double decker carriage, threw his pack on a single seat and slumped down with a sigh on the other single seat in front of it. The “Oscar” train slowly moved out of the platform.

At first he sat with the back to the front of the train but after a moment of deliberation, he got up, turned the back of the seat around and and sat down, facing the front of the carriage.

Across the aisle was an old couple sitting on a three seater bench and as the old…