Lyra looks out the window and sees the trees and nature, as she eats her snack on the train on her table top. She sees the people next to her listening to music, reading their books.
Suddenly, she hears a voice on the overhead speaker: “Attention passengers, we are approaching the stop to switch routes. Route 1 puts you on a new train, offering you new stops. If you choose to exit, please prepare to get off. If you are not getting off here, you may remain seated. Please keep in mind that if you choose to stay onboard, the doors will be closing, and they will remain shut, until the —” and the voice stopped.
“What?” Lyra thinks to herself. Her heart begins to pound, and she feels a sudden dizziness. She looks around at the other passengers, as they do the same. “She did not finish her sentence!” She says aloud. The others now begin to panic as well. Lyra gets up from her seat to find a worker.
“The doors will remain shut until when?” she says.
“Please sit down ma’am,” says the worker.
“No, I need to know! The doors will remain shut until when?”
“Ma’am, you need to remain seated until we arrive at the next stop.”
“Then what happens, though? If I do not get off, what happens?”
Her voice was getting more urgent now. “Everything will be okay, just please sit down. If you are not getting off at this stop, you need to sit down.”
Lyra was so confused. She had ridden this train her whole life. She was stuck, in a way, on this train. She loved it, though. “A new route?” She thought. She had never considered a new route, ever. It had been the same her entire life. She did not want to re-board, but at the same time, she was worried about how long these doors would stay shut for.
“We are now approaching Route 1. Please remain seated if you are staying this route. If you are getting off, please stand near the doors.”
Lyra does not know what to do. She begins to panic. Route 1 is all she has ever known. It has brought her consistency, it has brought her certainty. It has brought her a clear, seamless life. It has brought her what everyone before her has done. It brought her comfort, happiness, and solace.
Staying here forever would not be so bad, but then again, the idea of staying stuck – looking out the windows but not being able to get off if something looked appealing – made her deeply scared. She has been on this route because nothing was appealing enough to change course. But she knew that this could change – that she could, unexpectedly, see a new tree, a new flower, a new animal that caught her eye, and want to get off to experience it. So, staying stuck, she decided, was the worse option of the two.
She stands up near the door, and as the doors open, she gets off. As she steps off the train, her heart beating, dizzy head, worry in her heart and a pit in her stomach, she boards the boards the new train and begins to feels okay. Her anxiety settles. She sees smiles.
As the train picks up and begins its route, she feels happy. She is okay. Though she did not expect this, she can live with this. Because she made the hard choice to re-board, without knowing what it would be like, and she is happy that she has preserved the choice for herself to change routes when she pleases.
Photo by Tomas Anton Escobar on Unsplash
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