Next Stop ... for Chipka by auntietk
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Description
Next Stop ...
You walk down the subway platform thinking about today's destination. You've been on this train several times before: often enough to be comfortable, but not enough to have become jaded. What, six times? Maybe seven? It's still a thrill -- there's still enough uncertainty in the outcome to get your adrenalin pumping.
Not many people know about this train, and it isn't on any published schedule. People reading on benches under heaters in the holding area only know it isn't their train. Something causes them to be inattentive when it pulls up to the platform, and they just don't think about it.
The train that leaves out of platform 8 always departs on time, it always arrives on time, but the destination is variable. Infinitely variable, of course, since when you're standing in front of the door to the train, that 8 tells you the train's true character.
Your intention is the only thing that determines where you will go. You've heard a rumor that if you could make your way to the very last car you would arrive where you started, having gone as far as it's possible to go ... to everywhere and back. An interesting but pointless idea, rather like standing at the exact South Pole wondering what time zone you're in. It's time consuming, but gets you nowhere.
So far you've stayed on planet, visiting friends in far-away places around the globe. Today you think you'd like to venture in a different direction. You heard a fellow traveler on your last trip talking about a place called Agara.
From what you can gather, Agara is technically on this planet, but it's rather difficult to get there by conventional means, since it exists in ... what did he say? Some sort of pocket space or something. You've done some research on Agara, and this train seems to be your best bet. It's a bit of a risk to say the least, but just setting foot on the train seems a bit risky, so what the hell? The pockets of your jeans are stuffed with catalpa leaves as added insurance. You figure everything you can do to stay focused on Agara will help you get there.
If this works ... if you can get to Agara and back safely ... you have another goal. A place that, until you discovered this train, you thought was a fantasy destination, an unattainable dream ... the Nemaean Territories ...
..........
This subway station is in Chicago. I had this nice sharp image (except for the person in motion), started postworking it, kept going, and pretty soon it started looking sort of ... well ... sort of Chip-like. It got to the point where I started expecting Victor to appear before me out of a puff of steam. Seriously -- when it was done, I went through Chip's gallery twice to make sure he didn't have this same basic image in his gallery!
Of course Agara and Nemaea are Chip's creations, so if you want to know more about those places, you'll have to go back through his gallery and start reading. A worthy use of your time, I assure you!
..........
Thank you, my friend, for your inspiration! Feel free to take this train anywhere you want to go, and if you want to use the idea at any time, it's yours.
Comments (37)
Faemike55
Wonderful image and great writing!
frankie96
Very Twilight Zoneish...and some creative narrative....
bmac62
Look, there is a light at the end of the tunnel on track #8. Could it be the train coming back from Agara? Well done...I haven't been on a train like this in years. Your postwork adds a sense of mystery...I think it is the treatment of the ceiling lights.
cfulton
Thanks for the words... speaks to me as I make choices where I step on and direction I take. Great work on the image - the one you have created in my mind! Clive
West_coaster07
Excellent!!
beachzz
I took that train one night. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Funny part is the other people who rode with me all had this strange glow. I didn't pay much attention at the time, it seemed fairly natural. The train sped thru the tunnel at a speed I'd never experienced before. When it finally stopped, I got off. That's when I realized this was no ordinary train. There was light, and color and reflections of everything in all directions. It was the right place for sure. Couldn't resist getting into Chip's world here a bit with you---I remember this place, and it is very otherwordly--love what you did with it, and the narration. I think we should all get on that train one of these days!!
wysiwig
The first word that came to mind when I looked at this image was 'surreal'. Then I read you story. Outstanding duo! Really excellent. When does Keanu show up?
helanker
Tara this is tempting to enter that train :-)))Sounds exiting, what you wrote. I had fun following your thoughts here. Wonderful image too and I see what you mean by Chip-like.
durleybeachbum
Amazing writing, Tara! I was sucked straight in there, I'm surrounded on this site by extraordinary talents!
awjay
excellent imagery
blinkings
Great description. It really took me back to when I worked in the big city and got the train each day (ie there was no where to park the car). I drive each day now as the school I work at does not have a train service anywhere near it, but I miss having that time to snooze and read a book or the paper!
Djavad
En partance pour...
Katraz
Is that Alien spaceships I see hovering over the platform or just lights.
jmb007
magnifique atmosphere!!
lyron
Great image. Wonderful shot!!
myrabe
The train is in India and goes to Agra where a world famous lovers are buries in on of the most famous building in the world. Had i known that it has a station in Chicago I would have started there. Lovely Tale.
MrsRatbag
Beautiful shot and fantastic narration, well done!
Meisiekind
Between you and Chip I feel so completely unintelligent yet so extremely privileged to call you both FRIEND!!! Wonderful words and image Tara! WOW! :)
flavia49
fantastic image!!
flora-crassella
fantastic picture!!!!!
Dreamingbee
it has touch of twilight zone.. fascinating image!!!!
ELR
Great image.
myrrhluz
Could one become jaded on such a trip? Perhaps, but I don't think I could. Excellent glimpse of another reality. Superb writing and image!
npauling
A super story to go with this great photo. I'll watch out for this train.
orig_buggy
very cool shot!!
Chipka
Oh, this is wonderful! I had no idea you could get to Agara on that train. Eoslav and all of my Agaran friends know about this train, of course, but being Agaran, they don't really talk about it much; it's just one of those every day things, so utterly unspectacular that it slips their mind more often than it slips into their collective mind. But ah, Agara is like that, the unusual and the surreal is so mundane to them. Speaking of which, my other Agaran friend, Arkash just bought a new watch. One of those analog thingies made by master craftsmen from Pekkur, that small city in Southern Agara. You see the hands moving, but whenever you look at it, it's 8:15...no matter what. The watch works perfectly, but for some reason, you only look at it at 8:15 (am or pm doesn't matter.) He calls it his 8:15 watch because every day or evening at 8:15, he glances at it, but at any other time of the day, he forgets he has it. This is good, though, because I hear that the Number 8 train arrives in Pekkur at 8:15. Pekkur is a nice city, if a bit grungy, and they have the best dill custard there. (Leave it to Agarans to come up with dill custard!) It's amazing...so if you want, catch the Number 8, get off at the Central Station in Pekkur, then go looking for a restaurant called "Three Golden Birds"...you can't miss it. It's in Old Town, by the clock with no hands on it...but before you get there, go wandering around the train platforms until you find this really old guy playing the accordion. He does a mean cover of Patti Smith's "Pissing in a River" even if it's in Agaran and not in English...it's got a good groove in Agaran; it sounds spooky. I love this shot! It DOES look like something you'd see in Agara, minus the mowhawk-wearing street punks, bored-looking policemen, or wandering vendors, selling bootleg DVDs, Cigarettes, or dubious looking mushrooms in big, cardboard boxes that once held pharmaceutical goods. Ah...Agara...What a country! You really captured it here! I love this! Both photograph and writing are superb. I love the style of both! The image is so moody and dark, but not forbidding, and the text is vintage Agara...I won't ask how you learned about the custom of carrying Catalpa leaves around in your pockets...but yeah, people all over Agara do that whenever they get on trains or planes. Wonderful (and culturally accurate) touch. I love this whole thing!
wjames
Brilliant shot and a great story to go with it thank you!!!
junge1
Great story and image Tara!
lucindawind
great subway shot ~ very interesting commentary about it
anahata.c
a magic enticing vision in image and words, and your words—all first person & inviting us—are wonderful counterparts to your image. You've done a wonderful homage to Chip and still stayed Tara in the process. And your blur of the image is enchanting, Tara, the green lights feeling just otherworldly enough to draw us in, and the blur just enough to feel like a dream. In those "8"s, I see infinity (∞). It's been a while since I've been here, so I'm rusty on Chip's infinite world & journeys, but I felt chip in this one, which means you channeled him effortlessly. And you drew out his response, which is a wonderful journey by itself (the clock with no hands, the watch that's always at 8:15, etc). Art on art on art...A quiet incantation,and a gentle beautiful dedi for one of the most talented writers we know, along with an image in just the right key. Btw, I was in Agara a week ago, and a guy took a sun out of the sky, wiped off a sunspot, put on disinfectant, and threw it back. The man threw out the cloth, and the cloth—being hot (having just come off one of the suns)—smoldered in an alley, melting much of the asphalt. Sometimes the suns drop in the local river to cool off, or just clean up, but too often they get eaten by fish. A town to the right has a library of books that speak their contents, and bell towers that stand still while the whole town rocks back & forth. You have to pull the rays out of the suns (they're don't come out on their own), and the rays can be frozen for up to 6 months without spoilage. This is what I've been told...You did prose & a tale—hope you do more. You're completely natural at it...