Short Story: A Homesick Trip by Rahul Singh

Rahul Singh’s short story takes you through the journey from being acquaintances to friends to best friends to strangers with a narrative that tugs your heartstrings.

In fragments and splits, the inside of my ears hear you as I had done back when we were kids in a boarding school. You make words stutter on their way, coughs lapse into laughter and the anger grinds in the air between your teeth. I was supposed to take the train standing on the platform with you inside. We were going to circle around a hill and then climb higher to another; somewhere sitting between clouds. But the train honked and began trundling on the tracks. You put your palm against the glass and lisped. You were asking me to get inside but I raised my hand and waved it to say goodbye and let it fall slowly as the back of the train came to view.