[tape recorder crackles to life]
Laurie: Testing, one, two, three. Is this thing on?
[mild feedback]
L: Right, okay. This is recording two of my time in Breagh. Henry had to do farm work today for his mums, so it’s just going to be me. Luckily, nothing much interesting happened lately, so I don’t need his help in recounting it! Um, let’s see…I had my first test in English class, I think I did rather well. One of Mrs. White’s pigs got out and it was a big to-do about it getting into the market. Oh, and there was someone new today which is sort of strange because it seems like everybody knows everybody else here. “Country things”, like Henry says.
Nevertheless, there was a new person and she seemed…out of place, almost. There’s something odd about her. She seemed normal enough at first glance, she was dressed like most of the adults here are: button-up, blue jeans, some sort of football team cap with her hair tied back. She came up to Henry and me when we were out and about town and started asking us some questions like where we live, what our parents do, all that stuff. Henry was happy enough to talk, he likes people, but I…I’m not very good with them and looking at faces feels awkward, so, when someone talks to me, I usually just look down at their shoes.
And that’s when I noticed the strange thing about her. Her boots were clean.
That might not seem that strange if you aren’t from around here, but trust me, shoes cannot stay clean for long in Breagh. That isn’t to say that everyone here are all pigs or something, but the only paved roads are in the town centre proper and the rest of it is just patted dirt, so just from walking around all day, your shoes get at least dusty or proper muddy if it’s rained. I’ve only lived here for a few weeks, but my school shoes are already more brown than black.
But her black boots were completely shiny, like she’d just polished them. Maybe I’m becoming what Henry calls a country person, but I could just tell she wasn’t from around here.
So I guess the question is, where’s she from then? The train only comes at certain times and I’m sure I would have heard about a new person moving into town. It’s a small place, everybody knows everybody.
Nobody seems to know the woman with the clean boots, though.
[recording ends]
[recording starts up again]
L: [sounding more concerned and maybe frightened] Testing…so, um. It’s been about a week since the last time I recorded and, um…I saw the woman again today.
She was in the same area in the centre of town near the big clock and…she seemed confused, stumbling around like she was lost. Her hat was gone and her hair was down over her shoulders, but it looked matted, like she hadn’t brushed it or even taken a shower in days. As Henry and I were walking by, she ran up to us and grabbed my arm and I was starting to freak out a bit because I don’t like touch, but Henry…he didn’t seem to notice her at all. He didn’t even look up, he just kept walking like she wasn’t even there.
I tried to wrench my arm away, but she was holding on tight. I didn’t look up to see her face because I could tell she was staring at me, so I can’t tell you what she looked like, but she sounded…terrified. Exhausted and terrified, like she’d been running away from something for days.
She held tight to my arm and she said…
[imitating a person out of breath] “Are you in on it?...Are you all in on it together?”
I wasn’t sure what to do and I was really starting to freak out then, but I’ve seen people out of their minds before, in London, so I thought if I just pretended to agree with whatever she said, she’d let me go, so I said, “No, no, I’m not with them, I’m not in on it.”
She took a breath, like she was relieved and then she put both hands on my shoulders and leaned in closer. I still didn’t look up from her boots and I noticed they had a layer of mud on them now– but she leaned in and said, “Do you know how I can get out of this godforsaken place?”
I did know the answer to that one, so I just told her, “The train comes every few hours. You can just stay here and watch the clock right there and when it says it’s five, the train should be coming and you can go buy a ticket and get out that way.”
She started laughing, in these big gasps like she was sobbing and then she was saying “thank you, thank you” over and over and she fell to her knees and let go of me, so I ran off, quick as I could, after Henry.
I caught up to him on the edge of the town square, by the bookshop, and I asked him why he didn’t wait for me, why he let the woman grab me like that. I was honestly a bit upset because we’re supposed to be friends, so I didn’t understand why he’d leave me.
He just looked at me and said, “Well, those people just show up sometimes. We aren’t supposed to talk to them when they get like that.”
I said, “But you talked to her last week when she was asking us about the town.”
He said, “Yeah, but that was before she got lost. People from the big city, when they come here and they aren’t supposed to, they just get lost in themselves and, when they do, we just don’t talk to them anymore.”
I was going to ask him something else, about what being lost meant and whether she’d be alright once she left Breagh, but he smiled and started talking about some book he’d seen in the shop and then we had to go in and buy it and then the day was passing and I forgot to bring it up again, but…
How many people actually come to Breagh? Why do they get lost like that? It didn’t seem like the woman was alright at all, it seemed like…like when you’re a little kid. When you’re out on a walk by yourself and you think you remember all the turns you took away from your house and you know which way to go, but you round a corner and it’s completely unfamiliar, so you try and retrace your steps but suddenly the city switches itself around on you and you’re…lost. 
That was what she sounded like, like a lost kid whose house isn’t where it’s supposed to be.
[recording ends]
[recording starts up again]
L: [mostly numb, has just experienced something deeply frightening] She was still there. By the clock, just staring at it. It’s been a few days and she’s still standing there…watching the clock…
I stood by and watched her for a bit, and she barely even moved, she just sort of swayed back and forth and kept staring at it…
And everyone else just walked on around her! Like she wasn’t even there!
She’s still wearing the same clothes, but they’re all grimy now, it’s hard to stand next to her because of just…the smell…she smells like a dump.
And I…I finally looked at her face and she looked…blank. There was just no emotion there, she wasn’t angry or confused or frightened, she was just blank.
She’s just staring at the clock, like she’s waiting for a train…like I told her to…she’s just waiting…and nobody even notices…
[recording ends]
[recording starts up again]
L: There was a note pushed under my front door when I got home from school today, on this thick, creamy sort of paper, proper fancy, looks like it was written with a quill or something…
It says… [paper rustling] “The train only goes one way.” [pause]
…what? That’s impossible. That has to be a joke because…because how would that work? That would mean the train would never leave Breagh, it’d only come in, that’d mean…
That’d mean there’s no way to leave.
[recording ends]