Train Ride to Christmas

(I decided to focus on holiday travel for this year's story. Enjoy. All characters having sex are over 18)

Shivering.

Walking around a pile of icy slush, I hugged my coat closer to me. Looking up at the massive spike of dark metal and glass that was once called the Sears Tower, I watched the forked top appearing and vanishing in the low clouds of this cold December day.

Shivering harder.

Despite the pain it caused me, I picked up my pace. Not that it did any good, my limp got worse after about ten steps and I had to slow back to my original limping stride. My clothing wasn't meant for a Chicago winter; given that I had never been here during that season before, I had chosen poorly.

Shivering even harder.

I'm pretty sure the entrance to the lobby of Union Station wasn't all that much warmer, but to me, it felt like a sauna when I stepped inside out the bitter cold. After a moment of simply standing there enjoying that warmth, I shouldered my bag and - with the tap of my cane a metronome rhythm on the floor -- I made my way over to the escalator and rode down into the food court. I glanced over at the blue and red sign of Jersey Mike's sub shop. My stomach growled reminding me it had been more than half a day since I last ate, but I checked the time on my watch.

"Maybe just some coffee," I muttered to myself. The cold still in my bones, another shiver ran through me and then I yawned. "Definitely some coffee."

Limping inside, I made my way to the Starbucks. The barista was the normal far-too-happy- please-switch-to-decaf-already kid in his late teens to early twenties. He looked up from his phone long enough to take my order and then vanished into the back. A more experienced-looking lady came out, smiled at me, and filled my order. Apparently a "just coffee" was out of this young man's wheelhouse to make without managerial supervision.

Looking down, as I waited, I watched a fat gray pigeon wander by.

"Well, alrighty then."

Given that even the wildlife was seeking shelter inside here in Chicago, I wondered again just how my Mom's twin sister could ever survive here. She was a native Texan just like most of our family. Texans and snow just don't go together.

I gave my coffee messiah a smile and a nod as she handed me my cup of salvation. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Have a nice day," she answered.

Not a chance.

Following the signs, I tried my best to escape the food court without any further delay, but the smell of caramel popcorn from "Nuts on Clark" made a joke of that plan. With a bag of warm sweet goodness in my jacket pocket, I now had to hurry.

Which hurt.

A second escalator ride down took me a hint closer to my destination. But not nearly close enough as far as the ache in my left leg was concerned. By the time I made it to the gate waiting room, I was wincing with each step. Dropping my bag, I eased into one of the many seats with a sigh. Hugging my bruised ribs, I took a deeper breath than normal and more or less slumped into the hard seat. Melting to conform to its ridged surface. It had been such a long day and I had long ago exceeded the limits of my pain meds.

Food. Distract from pain with food.

Moments later as I was happily munching on some of my popcorn, I saw my Aunt Christi arrive in her normal bustle and flurry. My mom's identical twin sister, but with an extra helping of sexy, you could hear the male eyeballs clicking as she walked past the other passengers. I raised my hand to attract her attention. Her smile brightened the whole room.

"Dustin!"

Levering myself to my feet with the help of my cane as she approached, I grinned and accepted the hug from her despite the pain in my ribs it caused. She must have seen me wince.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Your ribs? I forgot. How are you doing?" She gave a shake of her blonde head before I could answer. "I told your mom that there wasn't a need for you to come up here, that I could manage to get my old bones from Chicago to Texas without help!"

I smiled and shrugged. "She insisted."

My aunt shook her head. "You are still recovered from a bad car wreck - which nearly killed you! - and my sister thinks you need to go across the country twice? Fluff between her ears! Marylou has always had fluff between her ears, I swear."

"Well, she has always said you were the smarter of the two of you." Grinning, I caught up my bag.

"I could rest my case with that statement alone." Aunt Christi looked me over. "Well, you look a lot better than the photo she sent me of you in the hospital. I like the suit, by the way. Old fashion, but nice. And I love the haircut."

"Thanks, but you can blame me binge-watching Peaky Blinders while recovering." Taking my hat out of my pocket, I adjusted my flat cap, grinned at her whistle, and then looked around. "Your luggage?"

"Already checked. I left my carry-on in the Metro lounge by the gate." My mother's twin gave me a lifted eyebrow that made her look so much like her twin. "You know, I've been making this same trip every holiday since I was a little girl. It is silly that you had to come up here. Now... no let me get that!"

She tried to take my bag.

I moved it out of her easy reach. "No, I got this. It's light, a change of clothes and my shaving kit, and besides you're supposed to be recovering yourself, Aunt Christi." I returned the family eyebrow to her just to prove that I could. "Speaking of which, you look great, but how are you doing?"

"Thanks, handsome, oh I'm fine." She waved away my concern. "It was just a mini-stroke. Another pill added to the normal daily handful that I take is all that it changed. I'm fine, really. I told your mom I was good, but she wanted to fuss like a mother hen." My mom's twin wrinkled her nose. "She is more and more like our mother every day."

The vague memories of my grandmother - who passed when I was five years old - were so far back in my childhood that I couldn't reply to that one way or another.

"Hungry?" she asked.

"Starved, but I grabbed some popcorn. I'm good."

My aunt shook her head. With a roll of her eyes, she pointed across the room. "That way is the Metropolitan lounge. Here is your ticket to get in. Go wait, I'll go grab you a sandwich."

I glanced at my watch. "But the train?"

"Delayed. We're good. Get! I'll get us food." She stopped a few feet away and turned back. "By the way, Dustin, it is so good to see you."

"You, too," I said, smiling.

As I settled my bag's strap over my shoulder into a spot that didn't hurt as badly, I watched her walk away towards the escalators. Even at sixty my aunt still had that incredibly hyper-feminine hourglass shape that all the women in our family seemed to have inherited. Curvy boobs and birthing hips, Mom called it. Can't say I disagree with that description.

With a wince, I got my half-battered body moving towards the lounge.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

My coffee a distant memory, my stomach happy from the beef and cheese sandwich, I followed my aunt out the gate and down beside the long silvery train to our sleeper car. My cane's tip must have been making a tapping sound but the deep-throated rumble and roar of the many different train engines buried any such sound. The air was chilled, but there were drifts of heat coming from the trains and a smell of metal, rust, and fuel that blew past us.

"You good?" my aunt asked, when I stopped for a moment. She had a small purple carry-on bag and a tiny purse with her. If not for that she would have probably offered to take my bag again.

"I'm good. Just a lot of walking." Leaning down, I rubbed above my knee to ease the ache. I half imagined that I could feel those metal pins in my thigh. I chuckled. "It's been a long day."

"Remind me to smack your mother when we get there." She shook her head. "A three-hour plane flight - which you were insane to take by the way! - followed by the taxi ride from O'Hare, then having to walk all over this place. You could have met me at the train station in Dallas two days from now and everything would have been the same, but you would have been able to rest."

"I'll rest on the train." Taking a deep breath against the pain, I moved forward. "Lead on Macduff."

She grinned, back at me. "So I still have you reading Shakespeare? And be damned him that first cries hold enough! This way."

Earlier when we had walked down the long lobby the many Amtrak attendants had guided us out here to this platform, but my aunt had known the way just as well as any of them. The first sight of the great silvery trains had been overwhelming, and now - walking between the towering walls of silver-gray metal - I felt a bit claustrophobic. I watched the side of the train and saw the numbers for each car. I've never been happier than to see "47" in a big blocky black graffiti numbers.

Stepping across the short distance and into the train car, I followed my aunt up and around what was, luckily, a shallow set of steps. The hallway at the top however was barely shoulder wide.

"It's this one." Aunt Christi pointed through a blue curtain.

Stepping inside, I dropped my bag on the wide couch and gratefully collapsed. Immediately I had to stand back up and get out of my overcoat and then my suit jacket. The heater in the room was working overtime already. As I looked around at the small room, I listened to her happily talking to the attendant out in the hall, and then to another passenger. Looking through the door, I saw my aunt give someone a wave and then she stepped inside as I was sitting back down. She gave a quick look around and then smiled.

"I've been in this room before. Back in 82, traveling with my mom. It's been renovated, but yeah." She opened the small door beside her and I saw that it was an incredibly tiny bathroom, with a shower. "Okay, train travel bathroom etiquette. There's another communal bathroom just down the hall. If you've got to go... number two... please use that one. Also, if you are going to change your clothes either go in here..." She pointed into the small bathroom. "... or do it out here to slow sensual music."

I grinned at her flirting. Same Aunt Christi, I see.

"I'll try to remember that." I pointed at her. "But, mind you, when you need to change, I'd prefer a nice bump-and-grind style."

She smiled, reached into her purse, swiped her phone, and a moment later "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails began to play. "Oh, honey, bump and grind is my theme song." She placed her hands under her breasts and gave her hips a side-to-side wiggle. With a smirk at my reaction, she sat down her bags by the fold-down seat, then put her hands on her hips and looked around the room. Then back at me."I need some coffee; I'm going to grab me a cup before we leave. You good? Want one yourself? Be right back."

She walked away still swinging her hips to the music.

Laughing, I made myself get up and try to work on semi-organizing the little sleeper car into some semblance of comfort. Unfolding blankets, moving stacks of pillows. I was in the middle of setting up my laptop when she came back carrying two cups.

"Oh, good, you brought a tiny TV. Can I get General Hospital and the Lawrence Welk show?"

I shot her a look and massaged my knee as I eased back in the seat. I thanked her as I accepted the cup of coffee.

"How about House or Criminal Minds?" She flounced down and sipped at her cup. "I don't want to get too far behind in my obscure medical training or my criminal profiling degree."

Shaking my head, I looked at the WiFi password on the room card and made the changes to get me access. "You need therapy."

"But then a therapist would need therapy. And his therapist after him." Aunt Christi leaned back, slipped off her shoes, and propped her dark stocking feet upon the armrest of the seat I was sitting in. "I would hate to know I had spread such madness upon the world." She picked up the menu. "When the attendant comes around here in just a bit we can go ahead and place our dinner orders. Generally, I get them to deliver it here to the room on the first night, then eat in the cafe car after that. Does that work for you?"

"Anything that involves less walking works for me at the moment."

She nodded. After a moment Aunt Christi seemed at a loss for words. "Um, so what is it you have been working on? My sister said you have been busy as a bee since the wreck."

Turning the laptop till she could see the screen. "I'm taking some online refresher classes. In case my leg doesn't improve back to full range, I'll need to make some adjustments at work." I gave a small shrug and a grimace. "If I want to stay employed there anyway. My boss suggested it."

"Oh... one of those situations." She tilted her head and gave me a look. "You could always move up here and come work for me. I'm a good boss. Not too demanding."

"I don't know much about real estate."

"Neither do I. That's why I hire people who do that." She gave me a grin. "What I know how to do is network attention. Online sales. And that I can teach you in pretty short order." Aunt Christi took out her phone and held it up. "Miracle of the modern age this. I do ninety percent of my sales work off this phone. Looking for a house? An apartment? Or maybe a nice condo? I'll send you twenty walk-thru videos detailing the pros... and cons... of each one I'm trying to move. Without leaving the comfort of my bed I can sell a house. I've done it, I swear." She ran the side of her foot up the outside of my arm. "Got a house to sell? I'll have a dozen pictures of it on every social media platform and have it seen by ten thousand people looking for a house in that same area by the next day."

"Mom said you were making good money." I absently placed a hand on her ankle and began to massage it. The tight-weaved fishnet stockings have a tactile pattern under my fingertips.

"Oh, hun, I'm rolling in commissions," She gave a small moan and pointed at my hand on her foot. "And you have till Texas to stop doing that."

My aunt gave a sensual stretch that brought my gaze up her legs, across her body, to her pale white neck and the strand of even whiter pearls she was wearing. The low cleavage of her dress caught my attention as well. Her eyes opened slowly and she looked across the length of herself at me and grinned.

"So, two days of just you and me in this tiny room. Whatever shall we do to occupy our time?" She bit her lip and nodded with her chin toward my hand. "The foot rub is a good start. Tell me... admittedly it's been ten years, but did you get over your crush yet?"

I did my best not to blush in embarrassment.

Aunt Christi gave a small giggle. "Yeah, your mom told me. Don't worry, I thought it was sweet."

I shook my head and removed my hand from her leg. Turning my laptop back to me, I tried to hide but the room was too small and the screen not big enough.

She rubbed one foot along her own leg. That pulled my eye back to her. She gave me a sympathetic smile.

"To be honest I didn't think it was right of her to read your diary." She waved her hand before I could speak. "Oh, sorry, journal. Guys don't keep diaries, right." She gave me a teasing wink. "Still, if you write stuff like that down, you have to accept that it might come out one day. It's like a sex tape. If you might ever get to be famous don't ever make one."

I shrugged. It was an old embarrassment. "I lost that journal years ago. How it ended up in that box in the attic I'll never know." Reaching into my jacket pocket, I took out my glasses. "I'm just glad it was Mom and not Jimmy or Gloria. Either of them would have put it up on Facebook or Twitter. There would have been a hundred copies of it scattered around the state."

"Oh, I like the new glasses. They make you look so professional." She sat up as the attendant stopped by the door. "Doesn't his glasses make him look professional?"

The attendant, a young black woman about my own age of twenty-five, gave a smile. "Yes, they do. I was just checking to make sure everything was good with the room. We should be departing in moments."

My aunt turned on the charm. "Hun, everything is wonderful. When you have a moment, do stop back by, and we will have figured out our dinner selection. I already know what I want, but he's never been on the trains before and is a picky eater."

She smiled at my aunt. "I'll be back in just a moment after we depart."

"Thanks, hun." After she walked away my aunt turned back to me and grinned. "She's cute! You should totally make a play for her. I'm sure there are some empty rooms here in the sleeper the two of you could sneak off into." Her blue eyes twinkled merrily. "She must get lonely on these long trips, right?"

I held up a finger. "Rule one. No setting me up with random people, if you please."

She rubbed her hands together and gave me a slow smile. "Oh... we're making rules now, huh? I love rules, they are so much fun to find interesting ways to break."

Two fingers. "Rule two. No finding interesting ways to break the rules."

My aunt quirked her lips. "Party-pooper. Fine, I'll leave you to flounder along in your love life just like your brother and sister have done. Perhaps some poor lost soul will take pity on you... here in a decade or so... and decide that maybe they can make something of you and marry you. For your money of course."

I scrolled the screen on my laptop. "Of course."

My hand absently found its way back to my aunt's warm ankle when she propped her feet back up.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

The slow side-to-side motion of the train was soothing. Like a rocking chair.

Finishing the final bite of what had been a pretty decent steak, I chased it down with the last of the mediocre green beans and a sip of my Jack and Coke. I eyed the dark chunk of cake on the plate before me.

"Their chocolate tort is always great." My aunt pointed her fork at me with the last bite of her grilled salmon on the end. "And as good as their steaks are, the salmon is excellent. You might want to give it a try tomorrow night."

I grimaced. "Not really a huge fan of salmon. I was thinking of the chicken."

She nodded. "It's good too."

The small table between us was never meant to hold two meals, which is odd given that it's got seats on either side. But we were managing. Our knees kept touching under the table. At first, we had made an attempt to not let this happen but after the tenth or more time it happened, we both decided to just ignore it. Not that it was all that easy for me to do since each such contact sent a small spasm of pain up my leg.

"Sorry."

I looked up from my food, puzzled. "What?"

"I'm hurting you aren't I?" Aunt Christi moved her leg slightly. I did my best to hide the wince. Seeing that she swung her legs out from under the tables and sat sideways, her back against the train window. "Sorry."

I shook my head. "You weren't killing me. Honestly, just walking hurts far more than a little bump."

"Did they give you something for pain?" At my nod, she asked. "And are you taking it?"

I chewed and swallowed a bite of cake. "When it gets really bad. It mostly just takes the edge off. Nothing takes the pain away fully, at least nothing that doesn't knock me out."

"Your mom gave me the run down after the accident." She shook her head. "That you are even on your feet this soon is amazing."

I took another bite and shrugged that away. "Mostly healed by now. The ribs still hurt if I breathe too deeply. My leg hurts in the cold, and if I do too much. Honestly, all the bruising made it look worse than it was."

"Dustin, you were in a fifty-mile-an-hour car crash -with a dump truck for Christ's sake! - and you say it wasn't that bad?" She threw a napkin at me.

"Could have been worse," I murmured.

She reached over and took my hand. "It was not your fault. The other driver hit you. That he was killed when the truck hit you both is not your fault."