Chapter 88
The first class accommodations on the train to New Mexico was impeccable. Champagne, caviar, full screen television and surround sound stereo system was all world class. Albert and I enjoyed the first class dining and stimulating view of the beautiful American southwest aboard out train as we traveled to New Mexico. The three-day train ride to New Mexico was far more delightful then our three day trip back to America.
The train ride to New Mexico made me feel melancholy for a trip I once took with my daughter. Feeling that I though were dead to me swelled in my cold heart as I asked Albert if he was ever married.
My impromptu question was obviously a very emotionally charged question for Albert. We rarely talk about suck emotional things such as life, family or love ones.
“Yes, her name was Brenda.”
A look of surprise crossed my scared face as I uttered, “What happen?”
“World war two,” Robert uttered in a stern unemotional tone.
Though his face was impervious to any emotion, I could see that Albert was devastated. He tried to camouflage his raw emotion that were swirling in his soul as he whispered, “She was murdered during a bomb raid by the English royal air force in 1941.” Robert gritted his teeth as he tried to hold back a flood of tears that quickly accumulated in his big blue eyes.
“I am sorry Albert, I never knew your were married.”
Suddenly a flood of tears streamed down Albert’s face as he gasped, “We had a child named Claris. She died along side my wife that very same day.” Alberts’s phlegmatic persona was suddenly shattered like broken glass as all of his pent up emotions erupted from deep within his soul.
“I am sorry,” I apologetically whispered into my friend’s ear.
Tears trickled from Albert’s swollen eyes as he took a shot of whiskey. Slowly he recomposed himself back to the unemotional rock that I have always known.
A sentimental feeling arose from deep within my soul as I confessed my emotional lost. “I had a daughter too. She was only eight years old with long strawberry hair, cute little cheeks and cheerful smile.”
“What happened?”
“She was murdered; it’s been almost twenty years.” An unsuspected tear trickled down my check as I reflected on that terrible day in June. “An accident gas leak caused my house to explode, killing my child and scotched my face. I have thought of her every day for the past twenty years.”
My delightful daughter’s smile pierced through my hardened cold heart. The warmth of her love erupted in my soul as I remember happier days of her delightful laughter and illuminating smile.
This was the first time Albert and I ever talked about our lost loved ones. We desperately try to remember the love we once had in our hearts. A wave of resentment and remorse fill the train cabin while Albert and I drank twenty year old whiskey and lamented our departed loved ones.