It was a fair question. Kate wondered why she hadn’t thought to ask it herself. She had the dizzy feeling of being caught up in something much larger than she’d realized—like she was a player in an enormous game that she didn’t know the rules of yet, or like she’d happened to glance out the window of a building and discovered that she was much, much higher up than she’d realized.

“You’re going on an adventure,” Uncle Herbert said. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yeah…”

Tom didn’t look completely satisfied with that, but Uncle Herbert just waved the clipboard.

“I’ll get this up to the dispatcher. Just remember: Keep the water tank full, and never let the fire go out. And keep an eye out for the twilight star.”

He turned to go and then stopped again, peering up at them in the darkness. “Wait a second. Something’s wrong. You look… floppy. Droopy.”

His lack of experience with children was showing again.

“We’re tired, Uncle Herbert,” Kate said. “It’s really late.”

As soon as she’d said it, she yawned.

“Oh.” He rubbed his chin. “That’s right, probably it’s past your bedtime. Why don’t we hitch up the passenger cars and the sleeper car and you can go to bed.”

“Like sleep here? On the train? What about Mom and Dad?”

“I’ll explain it to them.”

“They’re going to go mental,” Tom said. “You realize that. Like, they will literally take leave of their actual senses.”

“Might be good for them,” Uncle Herbert said. “They’re much too sane, those two. Night-night.”

With that he walked away, presumably to go find the dispatcher, whoever that was.

Suddenly Kate could barely keep her eyes open. She had no idea she was so exhausted. It was late, and about two months’ worth of stuff had happened to her in one day, and it was all catching up with her at once. She sat on her little fold-down seat and leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.

She wondered what Uncle Herbert had meant when he’d said that about magic. It was impossible. There was no such thing. But at the same time it didn’t seem like the kind of thing you just said. And evidence to the contrary was mounting up like snow in a blizzard.

More wisdom from Grace Hopper floated through her mind: “If they put you down somewhere with nothing to do, go to sleep. You don’t know when you’ll get any more.”

Kate couldn’t have said how much time passed before she felt a gentle bump. That must be the first passenger car being hitched up, she thought, without opening her eyes. And then bump: passenger car number two.

I hope the animals will like them, she thought.

And then bump: That must be the sleeper car.