The Christmas Train Read Online Free PDF Page B

and settled into the aisle seat, Eva stared straight ahead. She’d been found out! They thought she would be fooled because the soldier was a woman.
    Except . . . She was an American soldier. Like her Paul. And Paulie.
    Or was she? It could be a Nazi trick.
    Her heart began a maddening race, an irreverent tattoo, and she suddenly felt so weary. So old and lost. But she remembered to cough, and exhaled with relief when her mocking heartbeat leveled off.
    Why did she let herself get so mixed up? It wasn’t the 1940s anymore. That war was over and women soldiers were common. Eva took a shaky breath and tried to relax. Everything was okay.
    Anna had noticed Miss Eva’s panic when the lady soldier sat down across the aisle. Why was Miss Eva so afraid of people in uniform? But she had her eyes closed now. Maybe she would fall asleep.
    Sighing, Anna pulled her feet up onto the seat and rested her cheek on her knees. She was bored and tired of reading, but not tired enough to go to sleep. How much longer until they arrived? Not that she was ready to arrive in Ennis. She was probably the only person on the whole train going to a place she’d never been before. Would she have her own bedroom? Would there be a Christmas tree? Where would she go to school when the Christmas break was over?
    Her chin trembled and her throat felt all strangled like. What if her father hated her? What if she hated him, too?
    She’d made him a Christmas card. Not a very good one, because her mother didn’t have any colored markers to draw with, only a blue pen and a red one. And she’d had to use plain lined notebook paper. Even though she’d cut off the part with holes, it still looked just like what it was, a folded piece of notebook paper with a blue Christmas tree and red snowflakes. Not very pretty. Not very special.
    She must have slept, lulled by the pleasantly overheated train car and the soothing rhythm of the train, because when she woke up it was snowing. Beyond the windows everything was white—fields, trees, roads. The wire fence that paralleled the tracks looked like three white lines drawn in front of the rest of the world, regularly punctuated by dark posts, each wearing a cap of snowy white.
    They weren’t going very fast, she realized. Were they coming to the next town? She yawned, then stretched and looked around. She needed to go to the bathroom. And she was hungry again.
    Beside her, Miss Eva’s breathing came in soft, even snores, little old-lady puffs of breaths, like Nana Rose’s when she fell asleep in her recliner in front of the television. Anna hated to disturb her. Did that soldier-son of hers know his mother was taking a train trip back to where she grew up? Anna hoped someone in Ennis knew Miss Eva was coming. She’d said she had a brother, so he must know. Sometimes, though, old people got confused, like Nana Rose did at the end. And Miss Eva already seemed kind of confused. Like she was afraid when that soldier sat down by her. And before that, she thought the train conductor was a soldier, and it scared her. But her son was a soldier, and so was her husband. So how come she acted so scared of soldiers?
    Right in front of Miss Eva’s seat a little boy knelt, gripping the seat back and peering at Anna with bright black eyes.
    â€œHi,” Anna whispered, finger-waving at him.
    Instead of replying he pushed a battered Raggedy Andy doll up so that Anna now had two pair of bright eyes watching her. She grinned at them both. “Hi, Andy.”
    â€œHi,” came the muffled reply.
    â€œAre you going on a Christmas trip somewhere?”
    â€œUh-huh.” Andy bobbled up and down. Then, “To see Santa.”
    â€œOoh, Santa.” Anna raised her eyebrows high. “Lucky you.”
    â€œUh-huh.” The little boy shifted higher so Anna could see his whole face. “This is the train to Christmas. You goin’ to see Santa, too?”
    Anna