snatching kids up at the station

2022-08-22

I’m in the Station, which is a recurring dreamscape.

It is a huge, labyrinthine transit hub. I almost always get lost when I’m here.

The upper floors are full of shops, and dining, and a hotel.

The lower and middle floors, where the trains are, are connected by long escalators. But it’s hard to find the right one that connects to the right platform. And they’re all spaced out from each other. It’s confusing, and hard to get from one spot to another.

Somewhere in the Station you can transfer to an airplane. But I’ve almost never done that.

This time, I’m walking around trying to find my train. My dad is with me, and we’re in a bookstore, which is also the train. We finally find a few narrow bookshelves standing in an odd tucked away nook in the back of the store. They are our seats. My dad starts complaining about the seats because they’re in the very back. I scold him, tell him he likes sitting in the back, so what is he complaining about. He gets embarrassed and kind of smiles and sits down.

And then suddenly, I’m up at the front of the train in the cockpit with the driver. It looks a lot like the psychic girl bus up here. The conductor is a small middle aged woman with steel wool hair.

The train pulls out, and there are little kids running along the sides of the trains trying to climb on and climb in.

I reach out through the window and grab a little girl by the hand and pull her in. The conductor doesn’t say anything. I hold the child in my lap and she points out the window to her little brother, a very serious looking toddler with a dark unibrow. I reach my hand out through the window to try to grab him but he isn’t looking. He’s distractedly just standing there with his hand out. My hand passes through his and he closes it tightly, grabbing hold of me. His fingers are so small and cold and pale and strong. I pull him into the train.

The conductor has pulled in a kid too, and is driving the train with the kid on her lap. The older child stretches out awkwardly in my lap which I hold the baby in the crook of one arm.

This is probably not a very safe way to travel with children.