The Christmas Train Read Online Free PDF Page A

herself to smile. “No, we don’t get off here, Miss Eva. Not yet. Some other people might be getting off, but not us. Not till tomorrow morning when we get to Ennis.” She picked up her banana. “Here. You can have my banana if you want. Bananas are good for you. That’s what Nana Rose always said. But she didn’t like me to eat it whole. She always cut it up in a little bowl and made me eat it with a spoon,” Anna rattled on, trying to distract the poor old lady. “And she always told me to chew very carefully so I wouldn’t choke on a big chunk. ’Cause one time when she was real little, my mother almost got choked by eating a banana.”
    As if a switch turned on, Miss Eva’s eyes blinked, and that fast the fog in them cleared. “ Ja . Once my boy, he nearly chokes on a cherry. I had to put him on my lap and pound his back until it flew out.”
    Anna smiled in relief. She was okay again. “You have a boy?”
    â€œ Ach , my boy, Paulie. Very important he is these days. In the Air Force, like his father before him.” She smiled, relaxing her tight hold on her purse, and accepted the banana.
    â€œWhere’s his father?” Though Anna wanted to eat the banana herself, she gave it to Miss Eva. Anything to keep that lost look off her face.
    â€œOh, my Paul. He is Paul Senior, you see. But he died, let me think. Last year? No. Before that . . .” She looked off, her mouth moving as if she silently counted the years. “He died in 1990,” she finally said, her brow furrowed beneath her soft cap of white curls. “Can that be right?”
    â€œThat’s before I was born,” Anna said. “I turned ten in October.”
    â€œ Ja , me, too.” Then Miss Eva chuckled. “I mean my birthday is in October. But I will be seventy-six. No, seventy-seven.”
    â€œDo you have any other children?”
    â€œNo.” She shook her head. “Just Paulie. He had just joined the Air Force when his father fell ill.” She paused, her gaze far away. “My husband was so proud of him. Paul was a chief master sergeant when he retired. But Paulie, he is an officer, a major.”
    Anna took a bite of her sandwich. The train had slowed to a crawl as they neared the station. “Will he be there? You know, in Ennis?”
    Like a wispy curtain falling over her face, Miss Eva’s expression turned vague, as if her real self wasn’t inside her anymore. “Paulie? In Ennis? Nein . No. I never take him to Ennis.”
    Anna cocked her head. She’d never taken him to see his own uncle? “How come?”
    Miss Eva shuddered. Anna saw it happen, like a wave going right through her. Like somebody shook her by the shoulders and it made the whole rest of her shake, too.
    â€œHow come? How come I don’t take my boy there?” Miss Eva’s eyes had gone dark, like Anna’s mother’s eyes when she was angry. Anna shrank back in her seat.
    â€œBecause there is no more Ennis,” Miss Eva spat out. “It is gone. The airplanes with the bombs—”
    The brakes screeched as the train made its final approach to the station. Around them other passengers stood, pulling out backpacks and suitcases and tote bags, and queuing up to depart the train. But Anna and Miss Eva remained in place, both frozen by the old woman’s last words. Airplanes? Bombs?
    Anna wanted to ask her about the bombs but she was afraid. Was Miss Eva confused about those airplanes that crashed into those buildings in New York? Or was she talking about something else, like a different place from a long time ago?
    Nana Rose used to get stuck in her memories, and Anna was pretty sure that’s where Miss Eva was, too. A different place, a long time ago. It seemed like a scary memory, though, so Anna was afraid to ask too many questions. But one thing she was pretty sure of: if Ennis was gone, the train people