Chapter 2

During the taxi ride to the train station, Dennis took a short nap; he didn't dream.
When he woke up, the taxi was parked on the side of the road of the grand entrance of the central train station, a large, cement structure with fifty feet columns and floor to ceiling windows. People went to and fro about the plaza in front of the station like water in a rapid. Dennis had been to the downtown a few times, but he had never been inside the train station, and had never taken a train. He felt a little excitement about what he was about to embark on, and then he was interrupted by the taxi driver, who knocked on the glass separating the front and back seats of the cab.
'Hey, are you going to give me a tip or not?' The driver inquired.
'I don't know.' Dennis snapped his attention back to the driver and said.
'Well, you've been sitting back there for two minutes now, that's two extra minutes of charge.'
'How much do you want?' Dennis asked, still looking outside.
'How much do you got?'
Dennis checked his wallet, he found three quarters he had picked up off the street in the past five months. There were also many pennies and dimes and nickels in there. 'Do you accept loose change?' Dennis asked.
'What do you think?' The driver said, annoyed.
'Here.' Dennis dumped the coins from his wallet into his palm and then gave them over to the driver through a hole in the glass panel separating the front and back seats. The driver caught most of the coins, while some others slipped through his fingers.
'Are you kidding me?' The driver said, looking at the coins in his palm.
'Some of the pennies are collectables, I don't collect coins, maybe you do, or you can start a collection with these.' Dennis said.
'Okay buddy, listen-' The driver had to crank his neck sideways to see Dennis eye to eye and express his displeasure that Dennis was wasting him time, when he did, he stopped and said nothing mid-sentence.
Dennis looked at the large clock above the train station's grand entrance, the hour hand was five spaces before ten o'clock. 'I have to catch my train, thank you for the ride.' He said and exited the taxi.
With his suitcase, Dennis mounted the stairs and past the doors into the grand lobby of the station among a huge crowd. He looked for the entrance to platform nine, found it, and descended the stairs to the platform corridor, joining a line of people waiting to have their tickets checked at the booth near the end of the hallway. After being admitted past the last gate, Dennis walked onto the platform and saw the long shiny train, he tool a moment to take in the image of the large locomotive, and then boarded.
He found out that his seat was in first class near the front of the train, and it was a window seat. He sat alone in one of two seats facing each other with a small table between them. Dennis put his suitcase in the other seat and looked outside without shifting his gaze, his head pressed against the window glass panel, all the way until the train pulled out of the station and he was interrupted of his concentration.
'Hi.' A high pitched voice said, nearby. Dennis did not pay attention the first time.
'Hi, are you listening?' The same voice asked.
Dennis turned around and said, 'Hello.' There was a little girl of about five years old leaning on the small table next to his seat. She was wearing a coat, like him, and it was brown, like his.
'What are you looking at?' She asked.
'Nothing in particular.' Dennis replied.
'You look sad.' She said.
'I do?' Dennis kept his gaze focused on the carpeted floor all this time, so he reasoned it must look to someone else that he is sullen.
'You look bored too.'
'I could be, I don't know.'
'I'm bored too, I don't have anything to do.'
'Okay.' Dennis said.
'Are you sad? I think you are.'
'Actually,' Dennis lifted his head and looked at her, 'Not really, I feel fine.' He smiled slightly.
'Your eyes are weird.' The girl said, her face puzzled.
'They are?'
'Uh-hm, your eyes are too big.'
'You mean the pupils?' Dennis had answered this question before to less judgmental people who did not immediately dislike him for his eyes.
'What are pupils?' The girl asked.
'They're the circles at the center of your eyes that lets you see things, they're black, but I guess you don't see any black circles in my eyes, right?'
'Yep, does that mean you don't have pupils?'
'No I have them alright, but mine are hard to see because they are the same color as my irises.'
'What are irises?'
'It's hard to explain if you can't see for yourself.'
'Show me.'
'Okay,' Dennis got up and said, 'There's a mirror in the washrooms, I can show you there.'
The girl followed Dennis to the washroom and the end of the compartment. The washroom was small, so Dennis went in after the girl and they leaned against the sink counter to look in the mirror.
'See the black circles at the center of your eyes?' Dennis asked, the girl nodded, and he continued, 'The brown loop around those black circles on your eyes, those are the irises, and you have brown irises. Now look at my eyes, my irises are gray-'
'Why?' The girl asked.
'Different people have different colored irises, yours are brown, mine are gray, and someone else can be green. It's like skin color, there's a lot of variety.' Dennis explained, 'Now, my irises are gray, and my pupils are also gray, if I don't have pupils I won't be able to see, but since I do see and can see you and everything around us, I do have them. My pupils are the same color as my irises, that's why you can't see the difference, and that's why you think my eyes look weird.'
The girl looked in the mirror at her eyes, and then at Dennis' eyes for a few more moments, and then she said, 'Most people have pupils that are easy to see, so why don't you?'
'I'm a special case.' Dennis said.
'Why?' She asked.
'I don't know.' Dennis shrugged and said, 'I haven't found out-' He was interrupted by a woman, who flung open the door to the washroom. When she saw the girl and then Dennis, her face was flushed with anger with a hint of confusion.
'What do you think you are doing with my daughter!' The woman shouted furiously. This exclamation caught the attention of everyone in the compartment and the next one.
The girl turned around and said, 'Hi mommy!' Her face broke into a grin.
Dennis said, 'I was showing her what irises are in the mirror.' He did not look around.
The woman was not convinced one bit, she grabbed Dennis by the arms and pulled him to her face, 'Listen you-' She stopped suddenly when their eyes met. She backed away, her hand reached up to cover her mouth, and she quickly ushered the little girl away without another word.
Dennis looked back at the mirror reflection of himself. He left the washroom and walked down the aisle the in the other direction back to his seat, the passengers stared at him, but he stared at the ground the whole way. When he returned to his seat, he sat and continued to stare outside. The train was reaching the county line and stretches of farmland composed a majority of the green scenery. It began to rain and there was thunder after a time as the raindrops gathered momentum.
Dennis thought it would be nice to have a camera, he wanted to take a picture of a lightning strike.