The old-fashioned slow train shut its doors and it rumbled on, leaving behind just a small cloud of dust and a few lonesome passengers. The nameplate on the platform indicated that a location with the promising name of Doodzout, which just turned out to be an inconspicuous hamlet in a kind of no man's land between the big city and the countryside with nothing to see at all. A few bored youths had dismounted and were strolling down the platform in both directions while the vehicle disappeared into the distance, seemingly heading for the point where the tracks would meet.

A girl of about sixteen or seventeen years old stood indecisively on the empty platform for a moment, a tiny human figure, mainly dressed in a huge knit sweater that reached down to her knees with a huge backpack. Few people ever stopped here on this side of Doodzout, because it was mostly a place of transition and passage, and not of human activity. But Liana didn't feel like going home, even less than she had wanted to go to school; so she reluctantly dragged herself on after yet another uninteresting school day. Today was also extremely uninteresting in the after school hours too, especially here where nothing was in the air except for some dust.

The road up to her parents' house passed by empty buildings in various stages of decay, a few strange houses that were inhabited in spite of everything, some shady cafes that had seen better days, and sometimes fields full of rubble and weeds for a change. Flashy billboards had been erected here and there, in stark contrast to the faded signposts that were pointing out either the way to the city or to rural hamlets where no one ever went. The post-industrial part of Doodzout was not really anything at all, neither town nor countryside, a place that had never been much, which people forgot as soon as they passed it.

There was no point in loitering on the platform, so she wandered on without any haste. There was no one home now to come home to. She didn’t have much schoolwork to do, and she didn’t have any reason for excitement. Everything was happening on autopilot today: there were some household chores that needed to be done even when her parents were away from home, and some boring homework for school that wasn't that difficult at all in itself, but it still was a huge waste of time and energy.

And so her life happened, as a drunken slow train on its way from nowhere to nowhere. It wasn't really much better at school either. She was the outsider that the world barely noticed, and reciprocated that feeling towards the rest of the human world. The main reason she avoided most people in general was probably because she no longer wanted to be forced to take interest in things she didn't care about. Oh, she had very broad interests, but she showed no interest at all in nonsense, like expensive clothes that were actually ugly, or stupid apps that were only addictive, or in non-funny TV shows, let alone the gossip and lame relationship troubles that preoccupied her classmates, but which anyone with three brain cells could see would only lead to more heartbreak. All that most people occupied themselves with was but meaningless emptiness, as some ancient poet or philosopher understood long ago.

Seventeen and already so tired of the world that made no sense at all around her while everyone pretended it was all a lot of fun. She could sense that it wasn't. Human existence was one succession of whining and trying to arouse interest in things that didn't deserve it.

Daydreaming about other worlds with giant four-legged friends who had none of this world's problems, she passed the overgrown cherry laurel hedge of a deserted industrial site with a ruin that must have once been some kind of factory building. Nature had long since taken over wherever possible, with a steppe of wiry grasses interspersed with unusual exotic weeds, and beyond that impenetrable bramble thickets, a few willows, Japanese knotweed bushes and one huge broad poplar. She knew this place very well, but these days she usually walked past it without thinking.

Today was different and something wasn't right here. She felt a completely unfamiliar presence. She turned to take a closer look, and then she saw a strange flock of birds gathering. A buzzard screamed and fled when Liana arrived, but the rest of the birds stayed where they were: A pair of jackdaws and a feral ring-necked parakeet circled something, and a blue tit sat on the finger of... The finger of what, sorry, of whom? Did she see something or was the bird just floating in the air with its wings closed? She looked again and yes, someone was there. Had she seen that just now or not? Her brain seemed to be playing a game of optical illusions, and she could choose whether or not to see what she saw. She chose to see it.

A girl of about her age stood in between the birds and she talked to them.