We were dreamers
Not so long ago
But one by one
We all had to grow up

East Lansing, Michigan, November 21, 1998…

Cal rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and gazed out the window. It was pouring sheets of icy rain. No matter that four kids on the team were out with colds and such, including one kid on the offensive line with what they used to call ‘walking pneumonia;’ practice was only one hour away. The day promised like any other that week to be another rainy exercise in futility.

“Get yer ass outta bed!” his father Cal Sr. called from downstairs. Hard enough to be the son of a very impatient man; made all the more difficult that he was the coach of the number two team in the state in their division. Discretion being the better part of self preservation, the boy clamored quickly into the bathroom for a quick shower.

“Oh…shit,’ he muttered as he entered the bathroom.

Even in his extremely distracting haste, he was fortuitous in noticing several garments draped over the curtain rod of the shower, and he quickly bundled them into a plastic Wal-Mart bag, which he placed in the cabinet under the sink. Mom might have thankfully discovered the clothing while he and his father were out during the day, but why leave any discovery to chance,

“Uhhhhhh…” he sighed heavily as he climbed into the shower. Turning the water to near-scorch, he shook his head. Lithe barely began to describe his body.

“Tailor-made for wide out,” his father had bragged. He was indeed talented; no one, including him, could argue that. It wasn’t so much what football meant to everyone else that hurt as in how much he really did not want to continue in a long, arduous march into manhood. The hot water pulsated against his body. He looked down and wished it would just miraculously clean everything away.

“Get a move on, Cal!” He could hear his father yelling even through the near-roar of the shower. He shut off the water and grabbed a towel off the back of the door. He ran out of the bathroom and quickly put on underwear, tee shirt and sweats. Grabbing his gym bag and his sneakers, he ran down the stairs.

“Why do you have to make this so fucking difficult,” his father barked as he pointed to his watch, shaking his head. The boy glanced at the clock over the kitchen pass-through.

“Honey? Here’s a Toaster Strudel,” his mother Grace said, handing him the food and a pint-carton of milk along with his sweatshirt. He kissed her on the cheek and hurried out the door after his father.

“Would you fucking just hurry up,” his father said as he started the pickup. As the boy rushed down the driveway, he slipped on a patch of ice and careened head-long into the tailgate of the F-250. He remembered hearing his father let loose a slew of invectives before the sound of a bell seemed to tinkle in his ear...

Trains move quickly
To their journey's end
Destinations
Are where we begin again

“Well, don’t just stand there, Missy!” The voice was at once both intense and welcoming, which went along with the kind face of the woman urging him…

“Missy?” Cal rubbed his eyes at the glare of the flashlight off the plastic clipboard. His bewilderment was quickly dissipated as the woman nudged him

“All aboard!
All aboard!
Well? You coming?”

“Where?”

“Why, to the North Pole, of course.This is the Polar Express.”

"The North Pole? I see..." Cal didn’t quite see, in fact.

Hold this, please.” The woman handed Cal the clipboard and pointed to the attached ticket.

“Thank you...."

"Is this you?” Cal nodded.

"Yeah. Well, it says here...no photo with a department-store Santa this year, no letter to Santa. Sad.”

Cal shook his head slowly, as if the coax some sort of sense out of the moment. At seventeen, he hardly would have given any thought of Santa Claus, much less letters or photos.

“But you made your sister Kate put out the milk and cookies. Mm-mm. Sounds to me like this is your crucial year. If I were you, I would think about climbing onboard. Come on, come on, come on. I've got a schedule to keep... Oh.Suit yourself.” The woman’s eyes seemed to twinkle as she smiled; unlike his fathers impatient goading, her words meant to kindly tease.

“Well, Callie?”

“Callie?” It struck him as way more than odd until something prompted him to look down at himself in a quick survey. Instead of the sweat pants and hastily donned MSU hoodie, he wore….”

“What the…” Cal…Callie exclaimed as he realized he was wearing pajamas….GIRL'S pajamas... Pewter with magenta piping cotton-lined satin pajamas under an un-zipped Magenta knee-length satin robe.

After that, everything moved along in a stupor-like cloud as he…she felt the woman assist her onto the Amtrak car.

“C’mon! Sit next to me,” she heard a voice down the aisle to her right.

“My name’s Tisha,” the girl said as she patted the empty seat next to her.

“Isn’t this great?” The girl smiled broadly. She seemed to be ages with Callie. The face was very familiar…almost too familiar.

“Cal, right? I knew you’d be on the Express! I just knew it.” Callie’s eyes widened in recognition. The girl sitting next to her might be calling herself Tisha, but Callie knew her as Raheem Washburn, the boy who played goalie for the school Soccer team.

“It’s so nice to be me for a change,” the girl said with an almost tearful sigh, but her smile returned quickly as she leaned close and pulled Callie into an awkward hug.

“The lady told me there weren’t going to be a lot of us this trip,” Tisha said.

“There are maybe twenty or so of us…” Tisha swung her arm in display at the barely full car.

“There were two boys, but the lady said their dads found out. It’s so unfair!”

“Boys?”

“You know? Like us in reverse?”

“Excuse me, young lady, but thankfully moms do get to decide when dads won’t,” the kind woman said as she ushered two teen-age boys down the aisle.”

“Hi!” one boy said with a broad grin.

“I’m Aidan!” he nudged the other boy with his elbow; softly but firm none the less. The other boy was about fourteen or so; timid and almost small in a way.

“His name is Josh.”

“Now don’t worry about a thing. By the time we get to the end of the line, things will be all sorted out.” The woman said with an almost soothing if still confident tone.”

“There’s a girl in the next car you two might help,” she said to Callie and Tisha. Both girls looked at each other in puzzlement until the woman added,

“She’s a lot like you two.”

“Oh…okay,” Callie said gingerly. As she stood up, she found herself grabbing Tisha’s hand.

“Let’s go see her,” Callie said to the woman, and the three made their way to the rear of the car.

“Her name is Rina, though she might only answer to David. I know you’ll understand her. Just be her friend.”

“Okay,” Callie and Tisha said in unison. They entered the next car and saw a lone figure sitting to their left about three rows down.

“Hi,” Tisha said, pointing to herself and Callie.

“Can we help you? The lady said you might need a friend?” Callie said as she sat down in the seat across from the girl.

“Oh…okay.”

Callie thought for a moment, wondering why the lady felt she and Tisha would understand. Tisha had sat down in the wide seat facing the girl. As if she had read Callie’s mind, she smiled at the girl and asked.

“Your Pops wants you to be just like him, right?”

The girl nodded slowly.“My Dad…he’s a rabbi... he's okay but he's so strict when it comes to our faith...…" Rina began.

"Our temple isn't like some more understanding denominations. Me…I just want to write and maybe find someone like me or someone who will…acc…” Rina burst into tears and turned away; ashamed still in the midst of being understood.

"My pops is a minister...I know what thats's like.," Tisha interjected.

“My dad….” Callie began. Even in such a welcoming setting in such a freeing moment, the weight of her father’s expectations crashed hard into her own struggle of self, but it was that painful commonality they all shared that encouraged her to continue.

“My dad was All-State Wide-Out in high school and All-Conference in college, too. He won’t even talk with me about…you know…” Callie used her hand to gesture between them.

“I know…I know,..”

Callie began to cry, but for the first time in her all too hidden life, she was crying for someone instead of herself alone.

I can’t believe how lucky we are to be on this train,” Tisha said, using her hand to gesture between them all. At first it really didn't feel lucky at all, but as they talked they realized they were together for a reason. After what seemed like hours, they heard a gentle knocking behind them,

“Ladies? We’ve almost reached the Polar Station. Why don’t you three come back and join the others?” the woman said from the doorway.

In a few moments they had returned to the other car. By now, all of the teens were brimming with excitement. The two boys had settled in. Aidan was in a rather animated if altogether more than platonic discussion with a girl from Ann Arbor. Josh, while still understandably nervous and even a bit confused, had brightened and was listening to a girl from Battle Creek talk about how great a mom she had.

“Grab a coat from the piles on the seats at the back of the car. It’s a bit colder than usual.” The woman used her arms to urge the teens out of their seats.

“Let’s get together sometime, okay?” Tisha said with a big smile. Rina nodded slowly; still anxious about how things would turn out. Callie hugged her and in an uncharacteristically if still hope for expression of affection, kissed the younger girl on both cheeks.

“Mazel Tov, Sweetie," she found herself saying. Tisha repeated the endearment.

“Yeah…Sweetie it is, Rina. God bless.” The three found themselves alone in the car with the nice woman.

“Remember, young ladies? No matter what, believe.” The three nodded and made their way to the back of the car. Callie paused and turned to the woman.

“Believe?”

“You have everything you need if you just believe.”

The woman nodded and used her hand to urge Callie along. By the time she got to the back, she was disappointed to see that Rina and Tisha had already left, and the woman had disappeared as well. Reaching down, Callie noted that all the coats were gone, and the only garment left was a green front-zip Spartans hoodie. She put it on, and immediately heard a bell tinkle in her left ear as a wave of nausea overtook her and everything went black.

Sparrow Children’s Hospital, East Lansing...

“There you are,” a voice came from her…his right. Looking up, Cal found himself staring into his mother’s welcoming face.

“The doctor said you have a concussion. And she explained that the hit to the side of your head tore a bit at your left ear lobe. She said that you might experience some ringing in that ear for a bit. I’m just so thankful you’re okay.” Marie gasped, as if there was something else she feared to speak, but the half-frown on Cal’s face pushed her into continuing.

“Where’s…where’s Dad?”

“He…. Well, your team won the States this afternoon….”

“Great,” Cal said with only a smidge of enthusiasm, along with a “But?”

“There was a leak in your bathroom sink the night you came here and…”She put her hand to her mouth to stifle a sob.

“He…he?”

“He found your clothes…we got into a…He’s staying at your grandfather’s place.” Cal stared at his mother and then shook his head before bursting into tears. It was all too much to take in.

“Mom? Mommy?” he pleaded with her for forgiveness that would never be necessary.

“Oh no, sweetie! Not your fault. His choice. I hope he can change, but even if he won't believe, you have to be who you are. You’re our daughter, no matter what. I know this is so hard to take in, but you’re Callie. I just have to believe…We just have to believe.” She stepped closer to the bed and kissed her daughter.

“Believe…”

Lansing Journal, December 24, 2008
Tisha Washburn and Rina Abrams were blessed* in a joint service performed the Reverend Jusef Washburn and Rabbi Isaac Abrams, the happy couple’s fathers, at the Congregation Shaarey Zedek in East Lansing Michigan. Ms. Wahsburn is Associate Dean of the College of Music at Michigan State University. Ms. Abrams is a celebrated author of Youth Fiction. A trip to Israel is planned for March, 2009.

Aidan Templeton did hit it off with Denise Abruzzi, and they’ve been together since 2000. They own The Queer Book Emporium and Café in Kalamazoo.

Josh Gallento is Director of Gender Studies at Eastern Michigan University.

And Callie? It would be lovely to say that the family reconciled. Her father followed through and divorced Grace, abandoning her and Callie and her sister Kate. Both girls took their mom’s maiden name, Credere. Their father Calvin Eisigente is Receiver’s Coach for the Davenport University Panthers.

Callie is Director of Player Personnel for the Western Michigan Mayhem of the fledgling Woman’s Football Alliance. The team motto, from what has been reported, is Just Believe (Pssst....she's seeing a nice lady Architect from Mattawan...)

Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that's playing
There's no time to waste
There's so much to celebrate

Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly
You have everything you need
If you just believe

*Same-sex Marriages were not recognized in Michigan until 2015.

Inspired by the song Believe
from the Motion Picture
The Polar Express
Words and Music by
Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri
as performed by
Sigrid Haanshus

Reimagined excerpt of the working script for the picture printed with permission from Script (.) com.
Screenplay by Robert Zemeckis and William Broyles Jr.
Based on The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg