A Bit of Travel
Jacob felt that, next to horseback, travel by train was the most pleasant. It also had the added benefit of being more enclosed from the elements, and on longer trips, sleeping was much more pleasant. He'd been in those air planes several times, but found them far too cramped for his liking, and with such forward orientation in the cabins it eliminated the possibility for pleasant conversation. Very modern. Very silly. All of these humans these days didn't feel that half of the pleasure of travel was in the transportation. You see, that was true in the time of train travel. Ok, wagon travel not so much, but certainly in the case of train travel.
During his trip to the observation car, he'd had a lovely conversation with a family from Akron, Ohio doing their first trip to the Northeast. The father was some sort of computer businessman, so was very interested in his work, but that didn't detract from the pleasantness of the conversation with his wife and son. Both were very excited about their first tour of Nachton - it would be Mary Beth's first time outside of Ohio (aside from a trip to Indiana as a young girl to visit her grandfather, who apparently he reminded her of), and Indiana was just a pip across a state line. For the boy, it was his first trip, period.
He hoped that the father would remember to look up over the course of the trip, and let work sit for a few days, as he had a good three weeks off. When Mary Beth and Charlie had left the lovely starlight view of the observation car to prepare for bed, he suggested as much to Seth. Seth took it quite well, and even seemed to embrace it a bit more eagerly than some of these young business types. He just needed a little push was all. They always did, silly men. The man would feel quite silly if he'd not spent much time with them and they were kidnapped by Abenaki, now, wouldn't he? Or who were these raiders, these days? These Al-Qaeda? Something like that. It amounted to the same thing, really. There was always someone trying to rain on the parade of hard working folk. Of course, these raiders always seemed to feel the same way.
People just needed to talk things out more. That was the wonderful thing about coffee and tea. It was available just about everywhere in the world and it usually helped sooth things over. More of that tea and less of that sushi would prevent international incidents. I mean, giving raw fish to the President of the United States. Who had heard of such a thing? Men like that, no matter how misguided, needed steak and potatoes.
He'd had another conversation in the dining car with some people dressed in a very familiar fashion, from his childhood. It seemed they were Mennonites of some variety or another, traveling to a school in Pennsylvania. Pleasant people. Very patient, very calm, appreciated the value of a day's labor over tilled earth. Jacob was somewhat surprised to see that they were still around, but it made him happy. Unassuming, peaceful folk should be left well enough alone to their beliefs and practices. It gave him hope for the world.
Stepping off the train in Nachton, he arranged for the delivery of his trunks and took a short walk away from the train station, absorbing the night air. There was something about a Northeastern coastal city (well, outside of New Jersey, anyway) that was quite pleasant. A certain quality to the air that you just didn't find anywhere else. A little taste of home in an unfamiliar environment. Walking back to the station, he found his chartered automobile waiting for him. His driver, a young turbaned man named Faisal, seemed very nice. They had an animated discussion about the differences between life in Arabia and life in the United States. The major differences seemed to distill down to better food here and less unpleasant weather there. Jacob imagined that coming from a desert culture to a place with a proper winter was probably quite a shock, much like his own surprise when visiting California for the first time in January to find that it was eighty degrees and sunny. Amazing.
Arriving at Meridian, they allowed their conversation to run down naturally, and Jacob made his departure. He was in no hurry, he had all the time in the world. Taking up his one travel satchel, he bid goodbye to Faisal and exited the vehicle.
Looking up, he stared at the ultramodern buildings that he would be staying in. Very impressive, indeed. They must have their fingers in some pretty nice pies to have a complex like this. Smiling at the success of his immortal family, he walked toward the lobby doors.
((ooc: Jacob out, lock up))