Ardain Isma
CSMS Magazine
The train glided along the rails, carrying with it the hush of Christmas Eve. Through the window, the station lights flickered past like fireflies, and the world seemed to pause—suspended between expectation and promise.
Catherine sat quietly, a young woman of mixed heritage, her skin the soft hue of mandarin, her oval face lit by a smile so gentle it seemed born of kindness itself. In her gloved hands, she held a small book of poetry when her eyes met those of Paul.
He was dark-haired, athletic, and handsome, his presence radiating both warmth and quiet strength. Their eyes met—just for an instant, perhaps less—but it was enough to alter the course of her heart.
The train kept moving, yet for Catherine, time had stopped. Amid the rhythm of steel on steel, she could already hear the whispers of a love she believed eternal.
The days that followed were woven with light and silence—stolen moments in cafés where snow whitened the streets outside. Catherine surrendered to this newfound tenderness, unaware that behind Paul’s smile lingered a shadow.
When she discovered he was married, a father of two, December’s chill seemed to seep into her very soul. And still, she could not let him go. She loved him—too deeply, too truly. Her heart, captive to its own illusion, refused to yield.
Thus Catherine lived love as one might live a beautiful, slow wound: painful, yet impossible to regret. For even betrayed, her love remained—fragile, incandescent, eternal in its solitude. And in the reflection of a train window, somewhere between memory and forgetting, she kept on smiling—as if loving, despite everything, were still a kind of victory.
Note: Ardain Isma is a Haitian-American novelist, essayist, and scholar. He serves as Chief Editor of CSMS Magazine and leads Village Care Publishing, an indie press dedicated to multicultural and social-justice-oriented literature. His works, including Midnight at Noon, Bittersweet Memories of Last Spring, Last Spring was Bittersweet and The Cry of a Lone Bird, explore resilience, love, and the enduring quest for human dignity. You can order these books by clicking on the links above.
