Nadia slept fitfully, dreaming of her grandad as she tried in vain to reach out to him, but never quite fully making it. She woke up sweating, tangled in her bedsheets, and felt a heaviness in her chest as the guilt of not being able to recall an image of his face hit her full-on.
She looked at the digital clock on the drawers next to her bed. It read 03:42. She gave an exasperated sigh and turned over, tugging at the duvet to pull it over her head, desperate to get some sleep. It felt like only five minutes later when her mum burst into her room.
“Nadia, wake up. We’ve all over slept! It’s gone seven.”
Nadia groaned, still half asleep, having finally dropped off after what seemed like hours of trying. Her mum turned on the light causing Nadia to moan even louder.
“Didn’t you hear me? I’m sorry, pet, but you’re going to have to get up. We must have had a power cut last night and the alarm didn’t go off.”
At this, Nadia finally began to take notice. She sat up, still squinting, but her eyes were just beginning to make out her surroundings. The first thing she did was look at her clock. It still read 03:42. She scrambled out of bed, fully alert now and ran downstairs.
“Where are you going? Bathroom’s this way,” her mum said.
“I need my phone,” Nadia said, rushing into the kitchen and snatching her phone from its resting place on one of the units. There were missed calls from Jess and messages from Tomma. She dialled Jess and was greeted by her flustered-sounding friend.
“Are you up?” Jess said. “We had a power cut. Tomma called me.”
“Yeah I saw. Does Ash know?”
“Tomma told him too but couldn’t get through to you. Mum’s taking me to the station. I’ll see you there.”
“See you in a bit.” Nadia threw down her phone, and dashed back upstairs. She grabbed her uniform and rushed into the bathroom, almost knocking into her mum on the way.
“I’ll make you something to eat to take with you, then I’m going, or I’ll be late for work. See you later.”
“Bye, Mum. . . and thanks,” Nadia shouted from behind the closed door of the bathroom.
She didn’t have time to think about anything else. The train came at 8:00am and it was the only one they could catch from their village if they were going to make it to school on time. Her house wasn’t far from the station, so she should just about make it if she hurried. Her heart was beating fast and it wasn’t just because of the adrenaline of the situation and the unexpected wake-up call. No, there was something more than that—a sense of anticipation washing around inside her.
Nadia couldn’t shake the image of the clock out of her mind. There was a significance to that time, 03:42, but she couldn’t get her head around it. Her brain was still in its early morning haze.
After hurriedly dressing, she took the stairs two at a time, almost falling down the last few, and grabbed her coat and bag from the cupboard under the stairs.
There was a slice of toast and a banana on the kitchen table, which she also grabbed before racing out of the door, toast-in-mouth, trying to put on her coat with one hand whilst balancing her bag and banana in the other.
Fitness wasn’t Nadia’s strong point, but she jogged up the road as best she could, spotting Tomma and Ash ahead of her, which spurred her on.
“Guys, wait up,” she called out.
They turned around, both looking equally as eager and anxious as she felt.
“Come on,” Ash said. “The train will be here any minute.”
They made it to the station with seconds to spare. Nadia could hear the announcement of the arrival of their train. She was relieved to see Jess waiting for them.
“Urgh, I feel sick,” Jess said. “I hate rushing like this. It’s awful.”
“I know. I’m not even sure if I’ve woken up properly yet,” Nadia said. “Maybe I’m still dreaming, ‘cos I had an awful night’s sleep, full of weird dreams.”
“No, you’re not dreaming. We had a power cut, the clocks stopped at 03:42 and there’s only one thing that could mean,” Tomma said.
Nadia groaned, as the realisation began to hit.
“Come on, we haven’t got time to stand around chatting about it,” Ash said. “Let’s go.”
He led them into the station, up the stairs, and across to the far platform. By now, the train had arrived and people were getting on, but Ash took them on a short cut, through a hedge that came out at the far end of the platform, where few people bothered to go because the trains were never long enough to reach that far down.
It was as if the train ended and another had begun, for at the back of the train, the very last carriage was completely different to the rest. And the smoke blowing from the engine seemed to settle at the point where it joined the rest of the train.
“Quick, get in,” Tomma said, pulling open the door and gesturing for them to hurry.
They jumped in and Tomma shut the door behind them. The train began to move away with a large jolt.
As Nadia stared around the carriage, devoid of commuters and other school children, knowing it should normally be packed at that time of day, a sense of nervous anticipation began to rise through her body, like bubbles in a fizzy drink, clamouring for freedom when the top is first unscrewed.
“Here we go again then,” she said, her voice barely a whisper as it cut through the deafening silence of the empty carriage.