| June 2005 Winner: Polly Dunn, Lost
or Found?
Honorable Mention: Victory Crayne, Last
Train
Honorable Mention: Paul Halwijn, Last
Call
View the 2005 Will Write
4 Food catalogue of winners & honorable
mentions.
June
Honorable Mention
Last Call
by Paul Halwijn
Alone atop the platform Grayford Jones stands
waiting for the train, the last he will call. His watch says it’s on
time, it has been for 40 years. The watch is never wrong. Now, the seconds
have run out for him. He thinks of his Grandfathers words as he handed him
the time piece “This called the first train, ever”. It was 1915.
Now, looking down at his watch and back in his memory he reflects over the
years. The memories slowly overwhelm him.
In 1917 he sent the boys “Over There”.
He cheered as they left and cried when he saw what returned. He watched Prohibition
come and go, women earn the vote and the automobile come and stay. In the 20’s
He watched Hobos train jump to a better life or death. In the 30’s He made
friends with Presidents and Gangsters alike, Roosevelt or Capone, as long as
they had a Ticket. He was the Conductor and nobody rides for free. By now he’d
seen two wars to end all wars and one to end communism. But nothing really changed
except the calendar.
Gray was an American, a patriot, one of the last.
He was proud yet humble. But he worried, what would become of the world now?
Snapping shut his watch Gray looks around the platform where he finds the steam
and smoke cleared, he is alone. The work bell sounds and for the last time he
steps away. |
Will Write 4 Food