a little fence of alphabet...

It doesn't matter where she goes; the important thing is that she gets to go away. At the break of day, she is already at the train station, blowing gently into her two palms from time to time to pass some of the warmth from her breath onto her stiff hands. Despite the leather gloves, they are cold and undesirable. She wishes that she has someone else's hands to hold, just for a while.

While waiting for her train, she starts to read. Franz Kafka's The Complete Short Stories. One of the short stories, a very short short story which occupies a total of six lines on page 404 of the book. How cool is that? The title of the story is "The Next Village." I might as well copy it into my journal, so that I may comment on it later, as and when I wish. And so she did.

My grandfather used to say: “Life is astoundingly short To me, Looking back over it, life seems so foreshortened that I scarcely understand, for instance, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village without being afraid that - not to mention accidents - even the span of a normal happy life may fall far short of the time needed for such a journey.”

I wonder why Kafka likes to leave out his fullstops; the whole book is full of them! She thinks to herself as she closes her journal. Is it some kind of bad habit or is he trying to make a point? She presses on with her train of thought, but fails to find any answer.

Life is astoundingly short - how true. She grabs hold of her luggage as the train pulls into the station, and wheezes to a stop. Gathering her skirts about her, she climbs up the steps and walks into her cabin. A small table in the centre, two benches flanking the left and right, otherwise the room looks small and a little sad. And how cold she still feels! She wonders if it will get better as her journey starts. Maybe someone will come around to sell her blankets. That will make her happy - to buy a pretty little blanket that can keep her warm.

She sits down and immediately falls asleep. In her dream, she goes home and finds that it is much warmer and happier than when she left it.