the golden snitch

The man took his seat on the train heading to London King’s Cross. It was a bright day; the sun shined through the clouds and the train traveled over rolling hills of green. The man looked out through the window and admired the view, taking it all in. He couldn’t help but smile at the luscious rolling hills of green grass and trees scattered all over the landscape. As the train shuttered and sped along the tracks, the man thought to himself how glorious it all looked. 

He proceeded to take a book out from his bag that laid in the vacant seat next to his own. The book was an obscure philosophical work by a little-known author in the 18th Century - if the man mentioned the title or the author’s name to someone, they would most likely say they didn’t know what he was talking about. It was such a complex body of text that even the man struggled to comprehend it himself, but he still enjoyed reading it nonetheless. 

It was a challenging read, challenging to his own pre-made convictions and world views. The piece challenged the minds of the readers so much that it was difficult to comprehend the diverse perspectives offered by the book. The man couldn’t help but be engrossed in the book. He stopped noticing his surroundings as the train rolled into a provincial town, slowing to a halt at the platform.

Since the train was headed to King’s Cross, there was a surplus of bodies getting on than there were off. As the train left the platform, it sped up past houses, office buildings, and warehouses. It seemed like the new arrivals found their seats easily, except for one girl; who was still searching for a seat through the carriages. 

She eventually reached the man’s carriage and settled down in an empty table seat adjacent to the man’s, facing the opposite direction. This was the first time the man broke his focus with his book, and he glanced up to see who sat across the aisle from him. The girl looked back and acknowledged the man with a smile, influencing the man to immediately do the same.

He couldn’t help but think that she was pretty, after all, he was a sucker for pretty faces. But he was also conscious of that, and didn’t want to frighten the woman. He struggled to not stare at the girl while she put her headphones in her ears, listening to music and staring out the window at the passing scenery. 

The man continued to read the book he held, but he felt something was off, almost like he was being stared at. As he looked up, he caught the girl looking away in the exact moment. Sure enough, it happened a few more times and the man smirked, asking himself if she was checking him out. 

As time went on, the man started to feel a hunger build up in his stomach, thankfully, he had just the perfect thing. He closed his book and placed it on the empty seat next to his bag. He took a sandwich from his bag and sank his teeth in the delicious sustenance, all whilst thinking about the concept he finished reading about in the book.

The man pondered over the concept; the idea we are all ultimately caught up in ourselves and our delusions as the result of a cosmic joke that we play on ourselves. As the man chewed on his nutritious meal, he looked across the aisle at the girl once more and noticed her facial expressions. She looked sad, emotional, as if a metaphorical raincloud overcame her. As he gulped down the last bit of his sandwich, the man came to the conclusion that something was bothering the woman. He could sense the energy emanating from her. 

A voice inside the man told him to go over to the woman, to ask her if she was okay. He hesitated for a bit, but then he thought that he could make a difference and possibly help her cheer up. He summoned courage to his side and he went over to her, sitting down at the opposite side of her table.

The girl looked up just as the man began speaking, and she took out her headphones, visibly taken aback that he had approached her and wanted to talk.

“I couldn’t help but notice that you’re not in a good mood, are you ok?” the man asked her tentatively.

“Yeah, I’m not. I’m also not in the mood to talk” the girl responded.

“Alright, I was just checking. I could see something was up with you”

“Yeah, but you’re a stranger so why would I talk with you?” the girl retorted tensely.

“Aren’t we all strangers in a sense anyway?” the man asked her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well we never really know each other. At least not in this reality. And talking with a stranger can help” he explained.

“I suppose so, it’s just hard to talk about though” the girl said, her mood lightening up just a little bit.

“Things are often hard because we think they are” the man added, noticing the girl loosen her composure.

“But it’s not often true, I see your point” the girl chuckled.

The man couldn’t help but think she was even more beautiful in that moment when she smiled.

“So whats’s up?” the man asked her.

The girl took a while to answer, since she was a bit hesitant, but eventually she started to talk. “Erm, it’s kinda complicated. Basically…” she paused and held her hands up with her palms flat and spread out “…my grandma died and I’m just on the way to her funeral. I mean it’s in a few days and I’m going to stay with my family in her hometown in Surrey. The thing is my family and I don’t exactly see eye to eye. I had weird experiences a few years ago and it was kind of a revelation to me but they didn’t believe me when I tried to tell them, especially my dad” she admitted.

“I see and now they’re treating you differently because of that?” the man replied.

“Yeah. I mean they made me feel like I was crazy and something was wrong with me. They even said that they would call the mental health services on me if I didn’t stop telling them stuff that freaked them out.”

“Ah, not an easy situation to be in." the man said, sympathising with the girl.

“Exactly, so I made a decision to leave and go up north”.

“How’d you feel about going up north then?” the man asked.

“I’m happy I made the decision to go up north. I live in a village up there in Yorkshire and it’s pretty peaceful. I’m just nervous about seeing my family later today and over the next few days” the girl said with an anxious face.

“Yeah, I get it. You don’t know how they would react or say to you or even if they would want you there, is that right?” the man asked her.

“Well, they do want me there since it’s my grandma’s funeral and I want to be there to say bye to her. But yeah I’m just not sure if they won’t mention anything about myself to me” answered the girl.

The man nodded as he was taking in what she was saying and tried to think about what to say next. He was curious about her weird experiences so he asked her what they were about.

“I don’t know if you would get them” the girl said in response to his question.

“Try me. I’ve had my share of weird experiences so I’m a pretty open book” the man replied smiling.

“Alright, fair enough. Erm well, I had dreams about my family and it was like these dreams I had were telling me things about my family, about their personalities that they don’t realise themselves. That’s partly why they get so freaked out” sighed the girl as she finished her sentence. The man nodded and had an empathetic expression on his face as he listened. She carried on talking.

“I also keep seeing repeating numbers like 11:11, 12:12 or 555 et cetera. It’s crazy, right?!”

“You and me both” the man laughed.

“Really?! So I’m not the only one then?” the girl asked in total surprise.

“No, you’re not the only one. There’s probably thousands, if not millions, of people who are experiencing this” he continued to smile.

“Wow…” the girl muttered “…I didn’t realise that” feeling really assured after hearing that she wasn’t the only one.

The man smiled at her as the train approached London and the scenery was transitioning from countryside to urban dwellings eventually getting denser and denser.

“Honestly we’re all crazy here in this world. So I think you shouldn’t be telling your family things they don’t want to hear because they won’t be able to handle it. There’s plenty of other like-minded folks you can talk about this stuff with” the man admitted.

“Yeah, that makes sense” the girl smiled feeling elevated for the first time in ages.

The man carried on talking about his own experiences briefly, then stopped and asked her a question. 

“Do you like Harry Potter?”

“Yeah I do, I grew up reading all the books over and over” she nodded in response.

“You know the game they have in the books, Quidditch?”

“Of course, that’s my favourite thing about the stories” the girl responded, leaning forward over the table, eager to hear what the man had to say about Quidditch.

“That’s cool to hear. Anyway, you know how the game is played right? There’s a keeper, two beaters, three chasers and a seeker on each team. The keeper’s role is to protect the three hoops, which represents the trinity - at least I think so, from the Quaffle ball going in” and carried on elaborating with visual gestures. “The chasers have the role of passing the Quaffle ball to each other with the aim of scoring in the opposite team’s hoops and it seems like the chasers represents everyday life, or waking life if you will, going after material needs and ego identification” he explained and then took a pause.

“The beaters represents the government or establishment trying to beat every player in the game into unconsciousness and the Bludgers are the tools that the beaters use that represents the methods that they use to keep us all unconscious like propaganda, TV programming, war, prisons, society, addictive junk food and so on. And then we have the seeker, and of course you would know that the seeker is the most important player in the game since his role is to catch the golden snitch and win the game” he paused again and smiled. 

“Now this is where it gets very interesting, because the golden snitch represents the truth and is very elusive. It doesn’t simply come for anyone and you have to search for it - that’s why the seeker is called the seeker” he took a deep breath in and finished explaining.

“Wow, I never thought about it like that” the girl commented, astonished as the train slowed down to a halt and arrived at King’s Cross. 

The man smiled and knew he fulfilled what he wanted to do, which was cheer her up and blow that raincloud away. He got out of his seat, collected his belongings, and waved at the girl who was still in her seat processing what she just heard. The man got off the train, and as he started walking along the platform, the girl chased after him with her belongings in tow and tapped him on his shoulder. The man turned around and saw it was the girl he was just talking to, she looked at him and smiled. 

“You made my day” then hugged him and walked away. 

The man stood there with a smile on his face and a warm feeling in his chest looking on at her as she walked off into the distance and back into the rat race.