The bell on the lunchroom door jingled. “Well, mark another one off your list, Eleanor,” came a man’s voice. Nick looked over. The tall thin man was dressed in the cap and coat of a ticket agent. Just the man that Nick was looking for, then. “JJ Mickelson’s home,” the man announced.

Nick, unsurprised, went on eating, but Eleanor straightened, and stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray. “JJ Mickelson! Is that so? Tonight?”

“Just a few minutes ago,” confirmed the ticket agent. His bug eyes darted back and forth like fish swimming in a tank.

“Well, isn’t that nice!” Eleanor said, then turned to Nick. “We’ve been keeping track,” she told him, gesturing toward the wall. “See my list? The dates of when each of the boys from town left from this depot, and now we’re filling in the dates they come home.” She shook her head, getting together the supplies she needed to make her notation: a black marker, a small step stool. “JJ Mickelson! He was one of the first to leave.” She stepped up to eye level with her detailed chart, which listed perhaps thirty names in the left-most column. The heading of the next column was noted “Left Pine Rapids Depot for Service;” the next column was headed “Arrived Home at Pine Rapids Depot.”

Eleanor went on. “See, December 12, 1941, was when he left for training. I think he came home on leave a few months later, but that doesn’t count for us. This records when they get home for good. I can put today’s date here.”

Nick, popping a fry in his mouth, noticed that there were five gold stars in the “Arrived Home” column.

“Well, I don’t know, Eleanor, now that I think of it,” said the ticket agent. “Jack Mickelson said JJ has to go back to the hospital again. He’s just home for Thanksgiving. Maybe we should wait, come to think of it.”

From upon her step stool, marker poised, Eleanor gave the man a disappointed look. “Do you think so, Ed? He isn’t staying?”

Ed shook his head. “No. Quite a family reunion they’re having, though. Elissa’s coming in on the red-eye from Minneapolis, and Harry got here tonight from Superior.”

Nick just about choked on the bite of burger he was just swallowing. Coming in from Minneapolis! Of course. He had completely forgotten that she was going to become a cadet nurse. She had told him, but somehow, he had pictured her just staying in Pine Rapids, waiting for the war to be over. He felt like more of an idiot than ever.

Meanwhile, Eleanor had stumbled, nearly fallen from the step stool. “Harry? Harry Mickelson came home? He hasn’t been home since before the war!”