Last Car to Annwn Station Read Online Free PDF

his eyes. “Good evening, Maeve Kathleen Malveaux.”
    Mae licked her dry lips and grabbed the back of a seat to steady herself as the car started rolling. “Death, are you here for me tonight?” she asked, heart pounding.
    “No. My business is elsewhere.”
    Mae was silent, more than a little nervous. She was unsure how to start a conversation with Death. It seemed she needed a better lead-in than something like, “So, how about those Vikings? You think they’ll make the playoffs this year?”
    As the streetcar passed by the silver shimmer of Lake Calhoun, Mae plunged ahead. “If you don’t mind my asking, people die constantly, but here you are, riding a streetcar like you have all the time in the world.”
    Death smiled. “That is not a question. However, I understand your point. To answer your unasked query, Maeve, I am unencumbered by mortal concepts of time and space. They simply do not apply to my existence.”
    “Oh.” Mae cringed on the inside at her inability to articulate. She gathered herself and made another attempt. Waving her right hand around, she asked. “Why? Why ride on one of these if you can exist anywhere, everywhere, anytime?”
    Death’s smile grew wider and he leaned toward her. “I do not need to ride these cars, Mae. I do it because it amuses me and I enjoy contact with those who I do not have business with.”
    For what was the first time since she had boarded the streetcar on Hennepin Avenue in downtown, Mae wondered why she could see and interact with the streetcars while other people, like Jill, apparently could not. She glanced out the window and watched the shops along Excelsior Boulevard go by. They seemed dark and alien to her, not at all a part of her normal, everyday life. Mae frowned to herself.
    “You are troubled, Maeve Malveaux,” Death said.
    “I don’t understand why I can ride these cars when other people don’t even notice them.”
    Death stood and shrugged. “I do not have the answers you seek, except that the cars are both a part of and apart from the mortal world, and any who interact with them must be as well. That is why the spirits and fae folk are able to use them. As to why they have revealed themselves to you, I do not know. This is my stop, Maeve Kathleen Malveaux. Good evening to you.”
    Mae saw they were near Methodist Hospital, about to cross Minnehaha Creek, heading into the little suburb of Hopkins. His form disappeared into the darkness when the streetcar rumbled forward again. She looked at the interior. She was acutely aware of how alone she was. Mae sighed. She had not stopped to purchase another can of pepper spray. She settled back into her seat and cursed herself for wandering off unarmed into the night on a vehicle that technically did not even exist.
    She watched the night scenery go by. The car traveled through downtown Hopkins, past its string of antique stores and family-owned bars and restaurants, and turned slightly north. Mae realized the car was heading toward Lake Minnetonka.
    She withdrew the illicit file from her bag and checked the address listed for the Arneson family. The senior Arnesons lived in Excelsior, just off the lake in a section of the metro where old money held sway. Marie Arneson had returned to her family home, living with her parents after she finished drug rehab.
    The streetcar stopped at the end of a long driveway. The back door opened. No one climbed aboard and the car made no motion to continue on its path. Remembering Ellie’s statement about the cars getting you where you needed to go, Mae realized this was her stop. Thanking the conductor, she glanced at the name embroidered on his uniform.
    Lowry. It was the name of the man who had been the driving force behind the creation of the modern streetcar system in the Twin Cities over one hundred and forty years ago.
    She gave him a startled look. He tipped his hat to her and turned back to the front door, ready to greet any rider who might climb aboard. She