Peter Perfect was at a railway station in India
He was changing trains and had a long wait
It was a noisy chaotic station that was humming with people
Every so often a colourful express train would on horn
Scream through the station at speed without much attention paid
Peter felt anonymous and invisible which comforted him
Because back in England he was a wanted man
He had committed a murder or that was the story
Yet Peter knew the true facts as it had been a political argument
That had become violent and he had not even been carrying the knife
So he just vanished quietly into the obscurity of travel
At first he thought that he would be arrested in days
But days turned into weeks and weeks into months
Nearly a year had passed since the incident
Peter had changed his appearance a little
He had grown his hair and had a beard he was a drifter
Just another invisible drifter
There were many Europeans who had taken this route
As he waited for his train Peter was reading
The Story of the Cadsbys by Rudyard Kipling
This little softback was just over one hundred years old
And had been printed for the Indian Railway Library
Peter had considered that Empire had done a lot for India
But it had been a curates’s egg
His views would have seemed to be inflammatory to modern ears
But he knew that he was a clear thinker not uninfluenced by others
He knew this to a failing but also a strength
His father had spent some time in India and taught him much
Some of which he put into practice if an advantage was required
Although he asked himself this question on a daily basis
He did not really know what the future held
India he might leave India tomorrow and travel elsewhere
Although this presented its own difficulties as he was in the country illegally
Having helped a Danish couple crew their yacht
He had a feeling that they had been involved in nefarious activities
But they asked no questions so he did not probe further
He wondered if this was freedom a true freedom or was it a prison cell
Would it have been better taking his punishment
There was no real answer to this question
He hoped that his country would lose interest in him
And that one day he might return as somebody else
Peter Perfect as John Doe