The air was full of burbling, shrieking birdsong, and a gorgeous translucent-green light showered down through the trees. The sign on the platform read TUMUCUMAQUE, which much later Kate would figure out was in the Amazon.

Kate thought she’d better announce the name of the station, the way they did on regular trains, though she had no idea how to pronounce it. She said it several times in different ways just to be sure. She must’ve gotten it right at least once because a few animals quietly left their compartments and trotted and slithered and fluttered out into the heat of the jungle.

Kate grabbed a banana from the dining car before the next stop, which was in a bamboo grove. The station after that was giant redwoods, and after that was a dusty plain where a brutal sun beat down. It was so hot she had to take off her blazer.

Only two hardy wild dogs got on there, and one very small tortoise that took what seemed like half an hour to cross the platform. Kate felt like she was starting to get the hang of this, whatever this was, enough that she had some spare energy to start wondering about the big picture. As soon as she did, a million questions started asking themselves in her head. How could a giant steam train go to all these places? Why did nobody else know about this? Was the train invisible? And who put down all these tracks? Who sold all these animals their tickets? And so on. In a way she didn’t want to ask, because she was afraid that doing so might disturb some fragile enchantment, and it would all turn out to be a dream and evaporate as mysteriously as it had arrived.

She just wanted it to keep on going. But at the same time she knew that sooner or later those questions would need answering.

The next stop was another rain forest. When all the other animals had gotten on and off the train, there was one left on the platform all by itself.

At first Kate wasn’t completely sure it was an animal. It looked more like a pine cone. It was tiny and brown and round, with pointy overlapping scales. But when she looked closer, she saw that it had four legs and a tail and a little face. It was curled up tightly, its eyes shut, fast asleep.

Touching unidentified wild animals with her bare hands was not a thing Kate was completely comfortable with. But she could also see that, clutched tightly to the creature’s little belly, in its two clawed front paws, was a ticket.

And it looked so helpless. It was just a baby, and it was all alone.

She sighed. She even said the word out loud:

“Sigh.”