She was feeling something—a new feeling. Not even a feeling exactly, more like she wasn’t feeling a lot of things that she was used to feeling. She wasn’t tired, or bored, or frustrated, or wishing she was somewhere else doing something else. All that was cleared away. She still had basically no idea what was going on, but she knew she was free to be herself, right here, right now, in the moment. She couldn’t wait to find out what she was going to feel next.
The train slowed down. They were almost back at the station from last night. Tom came in, yawning, still in his pajamas, chewing on a piece of bacon.
“You think we’re supposed to be doing something?” he said.
“Probably. Don’t know what, though.”
Click-bing !
There was another one of those scrolling pieces of paper in the dining car, right by the door. Kate hadn’t noticed it before.
YES, YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING SOMETHING
“Well?” Tom said. “Do you want us to guess?”
THAT WOULD BE NICE BUT YOU’D ONLY GUESS WRONG
WE’RE COMING TO THE STATION
GO TO THE PASSENGER CARS AND TAKE THE PASSENGERS’ TICKETS
“Oh.”
That did make a certain kind of sense. And it didn’t sound that hard. At least in theory.
In an alcove by the door to the passenger cars they found two conductor’s hats, which somehow looked a lot less dorky now, and two of those mysterious metal hole-punchers that train conductors always have. Both hats had the words The Silver Arrow stitched on them in little letters.
Silently they placed the hats on their heads. Then they frowned and swapped hats. Better.
“Hey, how come you get a uniform?” Tom said.
If there was one thing Tom hated, it was when Kate got something and he didn’t. It was childish and selfish, and Kate felt exactly the same way.
“It was in the closet in the sleeper car. Didn’t you look?”
“No!”
Brakes squealed and the train stopped.
“Well, too late,” she said. “You’ll have to do it in your pajamas.”
“Ugh!”
The doors opened. The platform was still full of animals, patiently waiting. She wondered if they’d been there all night. Maybe animals didn’t get bored.
They began to file into the train.
Even by human standards they were incredibly polite. There was no pushing or shoving. No one barked or growled or squawked or tried to eat any of their fellow travelers, though Kate did notice that the larger and more predatory animals—a wolf, a bear, a couple of large owls—tended to sit in the forward carriage, and the smaller, fluffier, more vulnerable animals kept to the rear. They all had a light dusting of snow on their fur or feathers.