The Caregiver Read Online Free PDF

ground. He liked things he could control.
    And if he couldn’t control them, he at least liked to be able to see what was going on.
    He’d felt too unsettled . . . and too concerned about his unexpected companion on the train. As quickly as he could, he had finished his cold roast beef sandwich and asked for help getting back to his seat.
    And now he was sitting next to Lucy. Through the shadows, he felt her body tense as their silence lengthened.
    “Did you find something to eat?”
    The question didn’t matter, but the effort did, he supposed. “ Jah. Though I paid too much for it, I suppose.”
    “I found that to be true when I bought a sandwich on my first train.”
    Struggling to continue their stilted conversation, he said, “When I traveled west, I brought several sandwiches with me. There was no way I could do that this time, not since we all went to a horse auction first before boarding the train.”
    A beep and buzz overhead made Lucy jump. “Easy, now,” he murmured. “We’re safe.”
    The lights flickered once, twice, then eventually clicked on for good.
    Lucy exhaled. “At last!”
    He smiled at her. “Ah, Lucy Troyer. It is gut to see you again.”
    “Indeed,” she said, her lips curving slightly.
    Twenty minutes later, the strange whirring noise grew louder. With a jerk, the train careened forward, pushing many people up from their seats—and causing half a dozen bags to fall out of the overhead bins.
    As his backpack and her tote crashed to the floor beside him, then slid down the aisle, Calvin jumped up to retrieve them. But of course, right then the train jerked and rocked. And the lights went out again.
    “Calvin?” Katie called out.
    “Everything’s okay,” he said. “I’ll be right there. I just have to pick up our things,” he explained . . . just as the car wobbled on the tracks.
    Worried cries echoed throughout the car as the screech of brakes pierced the air, followed by yet another jerk as, it seemed, the engineer struggled for control.
    And Calvin attempted the same, grabbing for the edge of a seat to situate himself. Then, with a sputter and a last dying gasp, the train gave up its battle. Below their feet, a thousand gears screeched and then, with a loud, exuberant sigh, jerked to a stop again.
    Bringing yet another batch of luggage, books, umbrellas, and jackets down.
    Calvin held on tight as he was pummeled. Something heavy with a sharp edge knocked his head; another item ripped his shirt. “Umph,” he grunted.
    “Calvin?” Katie asked, her voice tinged with fear. “Calvin? Are you all right?”
    He was not. His arm stung, and his forehead felt like it had been introduced to the wrong end of a frying pan.
    But that was surely not something he was going to admit so openly. In the dim shadows, he spied their things. With a grunt, he picked up his backpack and little Katie’s pink tote. Spying a notebook near his feet that looked to have fallen out of Lucy’s bag, he picked it up, then hastily stuffed it into his things. When things were calmer, he’d sort out whose items were whose.
    “I’ve got Katie,” Lucy called out. “Come sit with us.”
    More grateful than ever for Lucy, Calvin trudged back to his seat as an attendant came into the car holding a portable lantern so everyone could get settled.
    “Remind me not to do something so foolhardy again,” he murmured as he gingerly sat back down. Then he turned to his sister, who was perched on Lucy’s lap. “Are you okay?”
    Eyes wide, she nodded.
    Well, that was not like her at all. Usually she chirped like a magpie. Over Katie’s head he met Lucy’s gaze. “Is she hurt?”
    “I think she is just scared.” Her voice caught. “But, Calvin, I fear you’re bleeding.”
    He held up his arm and inspected it. “Where? What can you see?”
    “I don’t see much on your arm, but your forehead is another story,” she murmured as she pulled a tissue from a pocket in her dress.
    “There’s blood on your