6.

April 2nd, 2035

It's a birthday, a celebration, a special day when a father and mother see their only son turn eight years of age. The gift from father and mother is a train set. Railway tracks oval circling a plastic rock formation with a setting from the Wild West so says the box it came in. A happy boy eagerly calling out 'look daddy ... choo-choo' once the train gets going by remote control and leaving its station platform. The train sets off along the track and Georgie playing conductor announces that it'll be five minutes until the next train arrives with dad capturing the action on a tablet.

Distracted by the goings on in the kitchen, dad and mum are happy to leave Georgie playing away, delighted with how the day is going and setting up for a kid fest birthday party. A doorbell rings. Needing to go through the living room before heading out to the hallway so a front door can be answered, John sees that Georgie is no longer playing with his train set, in fact he is no longer in the living room.

A panic sets in; Georgie has always been told never to answer the front door unless either his mum or dad is with him. By the time John gets to the door he sees that it is wide open and there is no Georgie by that door, and neither is there anyone else there.

'Georgie' John calmly calls out. 'Georgie' he calls out again, this time not so calmly.

Once outside relief comes, Georgie is there with a flyer. A carnival is in town and carnival employees are out and about promoting its presence. Doorbell rings accompany delivery of the flyers to create a buzz about town. It is not long before many children arrive with their families, and it is soon suggested that a day should be made of it. After an hour or so of a house birthday party, those who have gathered begin to head off and make their way to this carnival and this is where the true disaster occurs.

Georgie along with mum and dad ride the roller-coaster. Up and down, a loop-the-loop, twists, and turns, it is a lot of fun until it isn't. Nearing its end, the ride begins to comes apart. An accident, twelve people are injured, five adults and seven kids with one fatality ... the birthday boy. A whole world falls apart with father holding his son's lifeless body. To add to the dismay and panic, mum is separated from her family though she reconnects with her husband at the hospital.

***

Staring around what should be the ticket office at the train station John becomes extremely confused. The room has so oddly become much bigger than what it had been only a moment before. And John in not in the clothing he had only just been in. He is not alone either. There is no bench, no briefcase, and no tablet. He is sitting on a chair as part of a circle of individuals all of whom are sitting on individual chairs.

Confused and at a complete loss for what is happening John frantically looks all around until he hears a voice call his name.

'John ... John ... do you remember where you are?'

'No, no I don't' he says at the moment he was spoken to, responding to the person who just spoke to him. 'Do I know you?'

'Yes John, you do. Can you recall who I am?'

'You ... you were on the train ... I met you on the train. I'm at the station ... I was at the station. You were trying to retrieve me ...'

'John, there is no train, we have been through this. There is no station, no platform, and no ticket office. We had been making progress in retrieving you from that delusion of yours.'

'No, no. It's all real. I must get my son back. I have work to do. You ... you were at the hospital ...'

John gets up out of his chair and looks around. The man who had spoken to him is the man who he received the briefcase from on the train with which he says does not exist. Here he appears to be some kind of doctor or psychiatrist perhaps. The room he is in is large and rectangular shaped, some kind of community hall or common room, no this cannot be.

Two men stand next to one another and are close to where John so happens to be. They are wearing white shirts, white slacks and black shoes, orderlies perhaps? Is this some sort of mental health facility? These men, these orderlies so happen to be the sheriff and deputy from the train? No, no ... this cannot be right.

John moves away, the white shirt wearing men begin to make a move to him when the doctor fellow waves them off, for he himself goes after John. Down a hallway and into another much smaller room John goes. Some sort of office he has entered, an office with computers, laptops. He begins to type away at one as if he were making calculations.

Mounted on the wall before him there is a video camera, and this camera is observing him. Is this camera, the same camera from the room ... from his laboratory? Is this the second video he watched on that tablet from the briefcase, a moment from a video with the exception it is playing out for real, right now. John hears a presence behind him. Looking back along the floor back towards the entrance to this room he sees a shadow, for the good doctor fellow is standing in the doorway.

'John, we have talked about this many times ...' he says.

'No, we haven't ... you ... you are the incursion, aren't you? I've seen this very moment for myself, I've seen it ...'

'John there is no incursion. Time travel does not exist, you cannot go back and save your son, no matter how much we all wish that were possible.'

'No, I'll show you, I'll show you all ...'

***

John takes his pocket watch out for a third time, only two minutes have passed since he had last checked the gold rimmed piece and his train in this moment is still five minutes away from being due. He begins tapping his right foot, then checks that his brown leather briefcase is still at his side and soon decides to stay standing right where he is rather than try finding something to occupy his mind for those incoming five minutes.

The train will arrive soon enough, and it might even seem to arrive all the quicker if he could manage to refrain from continually checking his watch. There is an impatience to this moment.

He feels as if he has been here before ... been here forever, as he also feels as if he has only just arrived. If only he could properly remember. Soon he will know of a haze, a haze which prevents him from remembering why it is that he is standing on a TRAIN STATION PLATFORM ...