RIP Story : May 26th, 2024

“The Line” brought settlement to the Valley. For hundreds of year, this had been the valley where hunting parties passed through with their food for the villages or the caravans. The first lengths of steel were laid to the sound of startled rodents and birdsongs. Before The Line brought settlement, it was a passthrough for the trains that would save immigrants time and make the caravans obsolete.

The first to settle the area were The Line workers who fell in love with the valley. They heard the sounds of the valley before the work took place. Their first impression was the full beauty the valley had to offer. Once The Line was finished, the sounds of nature came back to the valley and the historical travelers found different pathways. It only took one massacre of travelers robbed and murdered for using the tracks to stop all travelers from finding different ways around the valley.

Time turned and community came to those who lived in the valley. Still composed primarily of the families of the workers who built The Line, the population had grown big enough and had been together long enough to develop culture separate of any homeland norms they may have brought with them. Community brought homes built closer together and a strong collective spirit to survive in this valley.

Community and Culture grew for a generation when The Line started to show signs of age. Nothing that would prevent trains making their journeys, but enough that The Line would need real maintenance. Some of the skills remained in the population, but when the train runners came to The Line People, they were not able to help with the rebuild. The oldest of The Line People were able to direct the train runners to the places that needed the most attention. They were able to show the train runners the risks of the valley and show the changes to the valley since the train runners were last here.

There had been a fire sweep through half the valley which led to landslides. The Line handled the event well, but critical ground around The Line was not as strong and the trains were getting bigger. The train runners needed to know. The train runners decided that in thanks for helping with the maintenance, they would built a station in the valley for the The Line People. No one from the Line People used the station more than once. However, those who had taken the train through the valley as passengers wanted to stop and see the valley. It wasn’t long for the visitors to see a community in the valley.

The Line People welcomed their new neighbors. The Line saw upgrades over time and the valley saw a steady increase of residents and part-time visitors. It was never spoken but there was always a difference between those who were part of the first families and those who came to live due to a station being built they had never asked for.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.

EPILOGUE: I don’t have a good ending for this one and I’m out of time. I like to set a 30 minute time and let the mind do its thing. This morning, I’m sitting here, trying to build in a better ending, but it isn’t there today, and that’s fine. I wanted to to be more of a “train line is the character” story but this turned into a story of community and change and the imposition of one set of ideals onto the lives of others.