MAX

A young person`s short story I wrote a few years back. It was written to be performed which I did at various events. That is why there are various bold type to indicate action.

Some of the references are out of date as there is a train line now from the Scottish Borders to Edinburgh.

1

It started on the journey back from Max and his mum shopping in Glasgow.  They had gone shopping for new school shoes for Max.  

Max lived in Selkirk in the Scottish Borders but they had gone shopping in Glasgow because his Aunt Jenny (his mums sister) lived in Motherwell and his mum and his aunt liked to meet and ‘catch up’, as his mother said. 

Max hadn’t  minded. Since his mum had only just passed her driving test she didn’t like driving long distances—yet.  Max hoped she never would.  For though he didn’t really like travelling on the bus from Selkirk to Edinburgh,  he loved trains.  And to get to Glasgow they had had to get the train from Waverley Station in Edinburgh to Glasgow Central Station.

Max loved resting his head on the window, feeling the movement of the train on his face. His mum would tell him to stop it. His face might get stuck to the glass and they would have to take him to hospital with the window still stuck. Max would do as he was told but as soon as his mum was back concentrating on her book Max’s face was back against the window.  He loved staring out of the window as the fields and houses and factories flashed past. He loved imagining what everyone he only glimpsed for a moment out of the window did for a living and if they hated shopping for shoes as much as he did.

Thankfully since this is a story we don’t have to traipse around the shops for hours on end.  We can fast forward and now all the shopping, and ‘catching up’ is finished, and Max and his mum are on the way home from Glasgow Central Station to Waverley Station Edinburgh.

We can fast forward to early evening and it’s just beginning to get dark.

On the journey home the shoo shoo shoo of the train always sent Max to sleep. He would always try though to hold his eyes open as wide and as long as he could in an effort to stay awake.

He would always try to stop himself yawning (yawn.) but he never could manage it. 

This time was no different except it was.  For he yawned the loudest, widest yawn he had ever yawned. (everybody yawn.)  So loud and wide that his ears popped.

It was after this loud and wide yawn that he first thought that things weren’t quite right. 

For the train seemed to be slowing down.

And his mum hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t even told him to put his hand to his mouth when he yawned and told him over her book ‘Manners Max.’

And…and…

Max closed his eyes tight and then opened them.

His mum was…she couldn’t be…but she was…

She was slowing down.  Just like the train was slowing down. In fact his mum was now turning the pages of her book BACKWARDS.

Everything was getting slower. 

Everything was going backwards.

Including the train.

Including a lady who only a few seconds before Max had seen walking up the carriage and ask someone if she could borrow their newspaper. She was now    walking…BACKWARDS…without the newspaper.

Then the lady sat down and placed turned her head to the window like Max had seen her do before she had even got up in the first place.

Max gulped hard and looked at his mother.   She was almost back at the beginning of her book.  Then she stopped.

Then everyone stopped.

But the train seemed to be going faster and faster BACKWARDS.  Everything was a blur outside the window.  Max laid his head against the window but pulled it away almost at once.  The window was rattling so much that it bounced the side of Max’s face back and forth. Max held onto his seat but then the train began to slow and slow eventually coming to a stop with a blast of steam rushing past the window.

Steam?!

Max thought it must be of the wheels of the train because it was going so fast.

Then the doors clanked open and Max heard someone shout.

‘Last Stop.  All aboard.’

Then in poured a whole multitude of folk, men, woman, and children, some Max’s age.

Only the children weren’t quite like Max. And the grown ups weren’t quite like Max’s mum and dad.  Nearly every one of the men had suits and shirts with funny little collars.  And they wore hats.  And they all had beards or ridiculous looking moustaches.  Max’s dad hated beards and moustaches and ties. The women had dresses or skirts that scraped along the carriage floor and they wore hats as well. Most of them bigger than there heads.  Max’s mum hated dresses and would not be seen dead in a hat.  Max’s mum was a jeans and tee shirt person even on shopping trips to Glasgow.  And the children—they looked like miniature replicas of the grown ups—except for the beards and moustaches of course.

Something else was strange about these people as well.  Max being a polite well brought up young man had said hello, and how are you, and had they been shopping for shoes as well?    

No-one had replied or given any indication that they had even heard him.

Max thought this very rude.

Then there was the sharp blast of a WHISTLE and the train started moving again.

It was a different sound though than before.  It was like his dad’s breathing after he came from his jogging.

Hi Hi Hi Hi.

Max thought it better to sit very still and see where they were going. His mother now seemed to be stuck on one page of her book.  She was staring at it intently, not moving at all. 

Max thought he’d better not interrupt her.

Max soon became bored of staring at the strange people and started to stare out of the window instead. 

Another strange thing.

Signs for Portobello Station; Gorebridge Station and now Stow Station flashed past.

That couldn’t be right though.  He didn’t know about Portobello or Gorebridge but he knew there was no Stow Station. Not anymore. Was there? Then he looked again at the countryside as the train chuntered through it.  It seemed vaguely familiar as the train crossed one tiny bridge after another. There were signal boxes and men in peaked black caps pulling levers at the side of the track. Men with waistcoats with watches hanging from the waistcoats.

Then a voice beside startled him.

‘He’s made a mistake.’

A boy, Max’s age was staring ahead talking to a grown up on the seat opposite. The grown up was reading a newspaper and not listening to what the boy was saying.

Max knew all about that.  Then Max leaned closed and read the date on the newspaper.

October 15^th 1902.

Max sat back in his seat. He felt himself frowning which he always did at school when he was trying to figure out what the teacher was talking about.

‘ He’s switched the track the wrong way.’ The boy said. ‘ We’ll crash.’

Still the grown up paid no attention.

This sent a chill down Max’s spine. He didn’t want to crash.  He didn’t want his mum hurt even though she had dragged him around all the shoe shops in Glasgow.

‘ What can we do?’ Asked Max.

The boy didn’t answer but got up and walked to the carriage door.

Max followed.

Then he went back to tell his mum but she was still intent on the same page of her book.  

So he went back to the boy just in time to hear him say to another grown up who wasn’t listening.

‘ If the next signal man doesn’t notice then we’ll crash. We’re on the wrong track.’

Max frowned again thinking long and hard. Then he rushed back and found a pen in his mum’s bag. He didn’t like going into her bag but he thought she wouldn’t mind. It was an emergency.

He then searched for a piece of paper but couldn’t find any. Then he remembered his mum’s book. She wouldn’t miss one page would she?

He wrote on the page:

HELP.  WE’RE ON THE WRONG TRACK. WE’LL CRASH.

He then scrunched the paper up and packed it into his shoe and waited and waited until the next signal box came into view.  It was on a bend in the track so the train slowed slightly and he could see the signal man with the black peaked cap wave to the driver. They were almost at the signal when Max with all his might threw the shoe out of the window.

It landed just to the side of the signal man. For a moment Max thought the signal man hadn’t noticed it but then he did. The signal man’s face went white and he rushed flapping his arms widely to stop the train.

Just in time the train ground to a halt as another train coming in the opposite direction whizzed past.  It was so close Max could feel his train shake so much Max had to hold onto the back of one of the seats.  Another few feet and there would have been an almighty crash.  It hadn’t crashed though.

Max stared out of the window at the signal man. The boy stared out of the window at the signal man.  The signal man nodded his head. The grown ups, except for Max’s mum, were also at the window staring out at the signal man.

Max decided he needed to sit down.

After this Max carried on his journey and even stopped off at Galashiels Station, even though he knew there wasn’t one anymore.  He was sure there was a Doctor’s surgery here now. He had been there when he had had the mumps.

He said goodbye to the boy and didn’t mind really that the boy didn’t say goodbye back. Max understood.

The town was the same but very different from the one he knew. All the shops were different and there were mills rising up along the Lade. There were very few cars but lots of horses and people in funny clothes like the people on the train.   No-one seemed to mind or notice Max.

He was enjoying himself so much he nearly forgot about the train until he heard the WHISTLE and had to run as fast as he could back to the station.

 

As he sat back down he felt incredibly tired and a HUGE yawn escaped again from his mouth.

His mum immediately started to flick the pages of her book forward very fast until she was back where she started and so was the train. Then she frowned and said.  ‘ I don’t believe it. The last page is missing.’

She left the book on the train as they got off and made their way to catch the bus home to Selkirk for they were back in Waverley Station in Edinburgh.

Max didn’t mind too much that he had to make the journey all over again. His mind was still full of the excitement of avoiding a crash; of the boy; of how different but how much the same Galashiels was.

It took his mum until they were on the bus to notice Max was wearing his new shoes. She was pleased. Even though they were supposed to be for school. For Max hadn’t liked the shoes in the shop and had said he would never wear them. She was even more pleased, and surprised, when Max said he’d like to go shopping again—he needed a new pair of football boots.  His mum and his Aunt Jenny could ‘catch up’ some more.

‘ What a good idea.’ She told Max, as he held tight onto the shoe box now containing his one remaining old shoe.   ‘ Maybe in a couple of weeks.’

Max smiled even though it would mean another day getting dragged around shops. Max thought it would be worth it though. 

2

Now this is not a long story. Or even a long short story. This is just a small small short story. This is just to let you know what Max does when he’s not going on adventures or saving trains from crashes.

Well you’ll know he goes to school like all ten year old boys (or girls.) And the first time he went back to school after saving the train from crashing…guess what?

Yes, you’re right.  The class was doing a project on Trains and Boats and Planes. Now Max had never been on a boat or a plane but you know he had been on a train.

And his hand shot up when the teacher asked if anyone had been on a train, or a boat, or a plane.

‘ I’ve been on train miss.’ Max said when asked.  ‘ It went into olden times even before my mum was a wee girl. And it was going to crash and there was this boy...and I saved the day miss.’

Now the teacher smiled. A smile that Max had seen before.  He had seen it on his mum’s face when he tried to tell her how he lost his old shoe.  He had seen it on his auntie and uncle’s faces when they asked him how he was getting on and he told them he was getting on fine thank you very much, but he’d really like to go shopping again so that he could have another adventure.

And when they asked what kind of adventure he would tell them and they would smile the smile that said…  ‘ What an imagination that boys got.’ 

Max didn’t mind too much really. He liked having an imagination.  He had heard once his Aunt Mary say to his mum.  ‘ He’ll grow out of it.’  Max couldn’t understand that.  Surely your imagination wasn’t like your shirt and trousers and shoes.  You didn’t grow out of it did you?

Max hoped not.

Mind you when Max thought about grown ups and their grown up shirts and trousers and shoes they didn’t seem to like adventures.  They always spoke about work or how much things cost. He had hardly ever heard them speak about monsters or faraway lands or slaying dragons, or saving the day.

Now I did say this wasn’t going to be a long story or even a long short story so I think its time to cut to the chase.

Max at the library.  Or more precisely Max and his mum at the library.

‘ You can get some books on trains and boats and planes at the library. For your school project.’ His mum had said.

‘ Can’t we just go shopping to Glasgow.’ He’d asked.

Max in the library. Max wandering around while his mum chose her books on murder mysteries.  Max sometimes worried about his mum!

Max coming to a dead stop in the middle of the library in front of a display board.

It had a heading:   BORDERS RAILWAYS:  THE WAVERLY LINE.

Every inch of the board was covered in photographs of old steam engines and railway stations with people coming and going.   Max thought he recognized the train he had been on but they all looked the same really.

Then he saw it.  A yellowed newspaper clipping.

NEAR MISS

A melancholy and no doubt fatal accident was narrowly avoided by the quick action of the Signalman on the Waverley route just outside Galashiels on Saturday evening…

‘Max.’

It was his mum.

‘ They don’t mention me.’ Said Max.

Something in his mum’s voice though made Max turn away from the newspaper clipping.  His mum wasn’t looking at him at all.   She was staring down into the glass cabinet that sat just beside the counter where you got your books stamped when you took them out of the library.

Max walked slowly over to where his mum was standing.  She was almost as still as that time on the train.  Almost.

The cabinet was full of all kinds of things to do with railways. More old photographs. More press clippings.  A whistle.  A black peaked cap and a watch that attached to waistcoats.

And…

Max’s shoe and the final page of his mum’s book with the message. ‘Help. We’re going to crash’ now yellowed and curled.  Under it was a white card with some typed words on it.

These objects were supposedly discovered in the possessions of the signalman who averted the near fatal train crash of 1902 near Galashiels.  His family’s story was that he told them that these objects were principal in averting the crash.  This of course cannot be true as the type of shoe was not manufactured until 2004, and the book represented by the torn out page was not published until 2001.  This no doubt represents a not very subtle or thought out hoax.    

Max’s mum stared at Max then. 

‘Told you.’ said Max.

But I think that’s enough of the present.

Time for another adventure.

3

Even after that time in the library Max was never quite sure if his mum really believed him now or not. But if she didn’t she was acting quite strange.  All the way home from the library she’d hardly said a word.

Max was expecting twenty questions.  Max was hoping for twenty questions. For Max had twenty answers (and more) at the ready.  The only question his mum had asked was not to Max but to the librarian.  Max’s mum had pointed to the shoe and the page out of the book and the librarian had said something that had made Max’s mum forehead frown just like his did when he was trying to figure out what the teacher was talking about. As if she was turning the thoughts round and round inside her head and getting no-where. Just like he did.

He wanted to talk about it but all the way home his mum’s forehead had remained wrinkled into that frown, so Max decided not to bring the subject himself.

And the acting strange continued when they got home. Max’s dad asked his mum what blood and gore murder mysteries she had now and it was then that his mum discovered that she’d forgotten to take any books out the library at all.  And later he’d heard his mum whisper to his dad.

‘But the librarian said they got the shoe and paper from the museum in Edinburgh. It had been locked away for years. ’

It was next day before his mum asked him to tell her the story again.

He did and she frowned with a sort of faraway look in her eyes.

That was a month ago now and things had settled down and even though the frown was still there on his mum’s forehead every now and then nothing else had been said.

 

Especially since Max and his mum had twice been through to Glasgow shopping since that time in the library. Both times they’d only shopped for not even half an hour before his mum, and not even buying anything, dragged him back to the station and the train back to Edinburgh.

Both times all the way back Max’s mum never read a book, never chatted to anyone like she usually did. She’d spent the whole time on the train sitting leaned forward, practically falling of the edge of her seat.

Waiting.

And you know what happened don’t you?

Nothing.

Nothing happened. Nothing happened not once but twice.  For maybe grown ups can’t really have adventures, slay dragons, or save the day.

That’s what Max thought anyway when the month had passed since the first adventure, and now it was another week further on from that and the frown had disappeared totally from his mums face.

To tell you the truth after all that time and the two journeys through to Glasgow even Max had begun to wonder if he’d dreamt it all.  Maybe it wasn’t really his shoe or the last page of his mum’s book in the library.

Maybe.

Then as is the way of things. When you’ve almost forgotten about something that something happens. 

It started with Max’s Aunt Jenny phoning up and suggesting to Max’s mum that they meet up to catch up. Since they hadn’t had time to meet each other the last couple of times.

Max had often wondered about this ‘catching up.’ His mum and his Aunt Jenny always phoned each other anyway, and would speak on the phone for what seemed to Max, days. 

What else had they to talk about?

Still Max was sort of pleased when he was dragged through to Glasgow for another pair of shoes since the toes had been worn through on his other pair from him playing football at school.

And hands up if you can guess what happened?

Like I said it always happens when you least expect it.

For Max by this time had definitely decided it was all in his imagination. So on the way back from shopping he stared out of the window as usual until the shoo shoo of the train made his eyes heavy and he could feel himself yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

And this time instead of his mum (who was back to reading her book,) flicking the book BACKWARDS, she was speed reading FORWARDS, her eyes and eyelids flickering so fast it made Max dizzy until his mum was reading so fast she looked as if she wasn’t moving at all.

And then came a sudden shunt as the train stopped …SUDDENLY.

And Max heard the voice.

‘Last Stop. All aboard.’

And.

 Shoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

If Max thought before was fast!!!

He was pinned back in his seat. Outside the window was a blur.  Inside the carriage was a blur.

And then.

Choommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

They had stopped.

Max fought to catch his breath.  It was like that time on the Pepsi Max in Blackpool but a million times faster.

He glanced out of the window.

A huge neon sign flashed back at him.

GALASHIELS INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY STATION.

GATEWAY TO THE WORLD.

Then the doors opened and someone shouted.

‘All out for New York, transfer to Washington, and Ontario Canada.’

There was no-one to get out to New York, Washington or Ontario Canada.  There had only been five people in the carriage including Max and his mum. And they were all, apart from Max, as still as Max’s mum. One man was staring into his newspaper. Another man was on his mobile phone, his mouth slightly open mid sentence. A woman was staring at the roof, her eyes half closed.

Max tried to get up. He had always wanted to go to New York and the Empire State building, and go to a real Baseball game. 

But he couldn’t get to the door in time. For into the carriage now flooded a whole mass of people, men and women, all in what Max would call, wedding type suits and dresses. 

Max decided to sit down fast before someone took his seat.

The doors closed and shoooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

They were off again.

Max listened, (he couldn’t really help it) to a man and woman talking in the seat next to him.

Woman:  ‘I’m glad we caught the express.  Last time I visited the Grand Canyon we stopped at every state along the way.  We got stuck in Wyoming station for hours. And the restaurant was closed. Would you believe it?’

Man:  ‘I can believe it.’

Choommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.    

The train stopped.

Woman:  ‘At last. That took forever.’

The man and the woman then stood up and closed their eyes.

Both said at the same time.  ‘Holidays.’

And then a very strange thing happened. The dull suits and grey dresses they were wearing turned bright green and yellow and striped, and their shirts and blouses became short sleeved.  Their sensible shoes with sensible laces turned into sneakers and flip flops.  And even stranger a pair of sunglasses looped over the top of their heads to rest on their noses.

Max felt very out of it in his jeans and trainers and Brazilian top.  Even if it was Ronaldino.

Still he had seen pictures of the Grand Canyon.  It wasn’t something to be missed. He always went holidays to places like Blackpool and Alton Towers.  

So he followed the holiday crowds out and he found himself…

Standing right on the edge of the Canyon.  There was a fence that was even taller than Max along the edge.  Still Max began to feel dizzy all over again. It seemed liked miles and miles to the very bottom. 

Right in front of him was three chutes like he had gone down, face first, with his dad at the swimming pool at the Alton Towers. 

The first chute said:  For Bravehearts:  

The second chute said:  Still not for the faint hearted.

The third chute said: For scaredy cats.

What one do you think Max took?

There was only one Max was ever going to take.

He joined the queue for the Bravehearts chute.

 

Still when he reached the front of the queue and looked down the chute he could help but gulp.

It definitely was miles and miles down to the very bottom.

But Max was a Braveheart or he was good at pretending and so he lay on the mat, face first, and pushed himself off, and down he…

 weeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnntttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

It was only when he was, what he thought half way down, that Max began to wonder how he was going to stop. Would there be cushions or a mattress at the bottom.  He seemed to be going really really fast. And how do you get back up?

Then he felt a rush of air pushing against his face and he began to gradually slow down until he was going very very slow and he dropped out of the end of the chute.

 The first thing Max saw when he picked himself up was how big and wide and huge the Grand Canyon was. It was well named.  Also there were groups of people wandering around all following behind someone holding up a pink, or maybe a green umbrella with a flashing light on top.  These people were the guides and were telling everyone in their group all about the canyon.

Max joined one of the groups and soon found out what the flashing lights were for. When someone wandered away from the guide the light would flash and the guide would say.

‘Keep to the designated route.’

And on they would go.

Max followed but he soon tired of being told how old the canyon was, and how it had been formed over millions of years.  It was a bit too much like school.  Then as the guide told his group that the train would be leaving for the ‘Rockies’ in five minutes Max noticed something very strange.

A picture of the boy on the train.  A very old train.  A steam train. The picture was on a display on the wall. The boy’s name was Andrew Castle and it showed him not only as a boy but as a grown up.

It said.

‘ Andrew Castle who at the age of twelve emigrated to America. On the journey all his family died.  He determined then to make it safe for people to travel long distances. Although not achieved until the year 2100 when the new Atlantic Railway was opened his original drawings were the prototype such a line. Without him, dubbed the Leonardo of his generation, we would never have had the world train service we have today. That is why next year to celebrate one hundred years of the stations existence the station will be renamed the Andrew Castle Station. ’

Max smiled.  For in a way because he had saved Andrew Castle’s life he was responsible for the world railway as well.

Max felt very pleased with himself.  He felt pleased that he’d found out what had happened to the boy.  He wondered if he should tell his mum.

He wasn’t sure but one thing he was sure about was that it was time to get back.

Then he saw something else.

Postcards.

They were sitting on a table with a notice saying.

PLEASE TAKE ONE AS A SOUVINEUR OF YOUR VISIT. 

Max smiled. They had wonderful pictures of the Atlantic Train arriving at Grand Canyon Station with the face of Andrew Castle superimposed over it like a ghost.

Max took one and put it in his pocket.

Still though the problem remained how do you get back up to the train?

How do you think Max got all the way up from the depths of the grand canyon back up to the train?

Easy really. 

He lay down on the mat again and this time the rush of wind blew him UP the chute.

His mother was still sitting perfectly still staring at her book when Max sat down opposite her.

All his flying down and up chutes and finding out what had happened to the boy made Max tired and he yawned and…..

Shoommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

And.

Choom the train stopped. His mum was frowning at her book.

She said.  ‘I must have dozed off. I can’t remember getting to the end of the book.’ Then she looked at Max. ‘Why are you grinning Max?’

 ‘ Guess what?’  Said Max, taking the postcard out of his pocket.

THE END.