She saw the train getting closer and she jumped on the tracks. She had always been afraid of someone pushing her intentionally or of falling involuntarily. Or voluntarily. When she got up that day she was all at once particularly energetic and skeptical, but she felt like experiencing new sensations. She was afraid to think that one day she would have the courage to take that leap she was so attracted to. Whenever she travelled by train, she felt annoyed when the train had to stop for hours only a few stations after she had got on because someone had done what she hadn’t. How had he done it? By running and then ramping up? By softly crumbling down the edge? As if thinking nothing of it, just a little jump. To see the train coming and jump. It takes a second and she’s in the ditch surrounded by pieces of paper, plastic bottles, metal. She also gets to see the startled look of two passengers when she rests her gym bag and her purse on the platform, as if she were coming back to pick them up soon. She saw the train getting closer.
Alex Jamieson
Original title: Saltar
Translated from Spanish by the author.
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