Unberthed: a short story by Peregrin Jones

Two strangers meet at a station in the most dire of circumstances. Their connection is brief, their conversation strained. Both are struggling under the weight of very different lives, looking for reasons to keep wading through the madness. They don’t fall in love, they don’t instantly cure all the world’s ills and live happily ever after. They simply talk. Talk about themselves, their lives and their outlooks. Talk about how we’re all connected by a thousand such chance encounters and passing moments. No one instant may be the life-altering turnaround that defines a person’s future, but that does not devalue the importance of each small coincidence. In the end they each go their own way, trusting the other to choose the path they follow. Perhaps no closer to perfection, but with another memory and another connection to the rolling wave that is humanity.