The Valentine Project : A Short Story … Continued
As she stepped onto the train, Scarlett saw very few faces that she recognized. After all, there were probably 4,000 girls her age who had boarded the trains that day. She thought it was impressive that Kinsley had been able to find her at all.
On board, some girls excitedly waved goodbye to the hordes of young girls, while others giggled and chatted with the girls who happened to sit next to them. Scarlett sat down, and the doors closed slowly as the last few girls trickled on.
Scarlett looked with admiration out the window at all the girls, spotting who she thought was Kinsley in the distance. She bit her lip as it began to tremble. She would miss Kinsley’s spunky personality. But she pushed the thoughts away by thinking of the thrilling journey ahead. Soon, the government would assign her the love of her life. She had dreamed of this day since she was young.
The train would take all the girls to a facility located in what used to be Alberta, Canada, making the location equidistant from both the girls’ and boys’ communities. The ride would take four days because the train was rather old. The government had spent most of its money on the facility, along with the technology used to match girls and boys.
Scarlett watched as all she had ever known slipped away from view. After about an hour, she could no longer even see the girls’ community in the distance. She chatted with the girl next to her for a while—just small talk about funny anecdotes from teaching at school, the apartment complex she had lived in, and so on. But as the hours dragged on, they eventually stopped talking and simply stared out the windows. Some of the girls continued to talk, but it was much quieter than the boisterous commotion at the beginning of the ride. It grew quiet enough for Scarlett to hear a faint noise echoing from the cabin’s bathroom. She was sure no one else could hear, or maybe they just weren’t paying attention. So, she got up nonchalantly and knocked lightly on the door. Luckily, all the cabin chairs faced away from the bathroom, so no one would notice. Suddenly, the noise stopped, and Scarlett realized from the puffy-eyed girl who opened the door that the noise had been crying.
To avoid embarrassing her, Scarlett decided to use the bathroom so it wouldn’t seem like she was knocking because of the noise. After using the bathroom, she scanned the cabin to find where the girl was sitting. The girl had thick, medium brown hair that was recognizable even from behind. So, Scarlett walked down the aisle, and instead of sitting back in her own seat, she sat next to the girl. The girl looked nervous as Scarlett sat down but smiled softly at her.
Scarlett smiled back and said confidently, “I’m Scarlett.”
The girl replied somewhat timidly, “Nice to meet you. My name is Stella.” Scarlett could tell the girl was still embarrassed by how they had met.
Scarlett could see goodness radiating from Stella. She had a gut instinct that she could trust her, even though they had never met before.
“Are you hungry, Stella? Because I don’t want to be the first person to head to the dining cabin,” asked Scarlett. That wasn’t really why Scarlett wanted to go to the dining cabin. It was just a way to get Stella somewhere private to talk and see if she was okay.
Stella responded with a reluctant but warm smile, “I could eat.”
“Perfect!” Scarlett replied.
They got up and passed through a few train cars until they reached their assigned dining cabin. The government had to be quite precise with the entire transportation endeavor. There were about 4,000 girls, meaning multiple trains had taken off from four locations within the girls’ community. Each girl was assigned to a train based on the first letter of her last name. The train had two cabins where passengers could sit, then three cabins for sleeping, followed by a dining cabin, repeating until they had enough cabins to accommodate 1,000 girls for four nights. This system had been determined to be the best form of transport when they started the Valentine Project.
Scarlett and Stella finally reached the dining cabin, which, to Scarlett's relief, was empty. They grabbed the government-provided packaged sandwiches and chips and sat down.
To avoid bluntly asking Stella why she had been crying, Scarlett decided to start with an easier question: “How excited are you to go to the facility?” she asked with a warm grin and an eager tone.
Stella replied quite nonchalantly, “Not very.”
Scarlett was taken aback. She had never heard any girl answer the question with anything but enthusiasm.
Perplexed, she questioned, “What, why?”
“I’m going to miss it here. I like my life in the girls’ community,” she said, before adding, "I’ve never known anything different, so why would I want it all to change?" Stella’s voice broke slightly at the end, and she stopped speaking, quickly biting her lip to prevent the tears.
Scarlett could tell that this was why Stella had been crying earlier. And yet, at the same time, it didn’t make sense. She herself was going to miss some of the younger girls, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to go to the facility. No one, aside from Stella, had ever expressed a worry, fear, or concern about leaving and starting fresh. Ever since Scarlett could remember, she had been taught that the peak of life lay ahead in the facility—that the girls’ community was just an annoying hurdle to climb before life really began. Suddenly, she remembered that feeling she had when entering the train: the question bubbling up inside her about what lay ahead. But that thought was alleviated by her remembrance that there was a reason the officials explained it to them this way—it was because it was all true. The government knew the full process more than Scarlett and Stella could, because they had designed it. They knew the girls’ community was a stepping stone where the girls could mature before entering adulthood with a perfect match.
“Stella, you don’t need to worry. Don’t you remember all of those lessons in school about how successful the Valentine Project has been and continues to be? All of those pictures of happy couples leaving the facility arm in arm?” she said, smiling.
“You’re right.” Stella smiled and released her tense shoulders. “I want to go. Of course, I do. I’m just not a fan of change generally, but this will be a good change.”
Scarlett felt like she had broken through to her. She had reminded Stella of the larger picture, snapping her out of her doubts. For the rest of the train ride, Stella’s demeanor was much more confident than it had been before.
Scarlett fell asleep that night, happily imagining her life in the adult world. In the morning, she awoke to someone yanking on her lavender pajama sleeve violently.
To be continued...
Written by: Katie Brueche
Edited by: Brooke Olson