Annabelle silently urged the streetcar to move faster as it traveled down Second Street toward the Library of Congress, where her sister volunteered five days a week. It was this chance for Elaine to do productive work that had brought them both from the heartland of Kansas all the way to the nation’s capital. Only two months earlier, neither of them had traveled more than fifty miles from the farm where they’d been born.

Now they had ventured across the country, found and leased their own apartment, learned to use the streetcar system, and were embarking on a new way of life. Annabelle prayed it would be the answer for Elaine. If this didn’t work, she wasn’t sure what else could be done to save her adored older sister.

Annabelle bit her lip as the streetcar made yet another stop at East Capitol Street. So many people getting on and off! She was already forty minutes late picking up Elaine, and she silently urged the two jabbering businessmen to hurry up and disembark.

At last the streetcar was on its way, and Annabelle grabbed the hold bar as she moved to the front so she could be first off at the next stop. Elaine must be out of her mind with worry by now. So far their system had worked quite well, for the Smithsonian was only a few blocks from the Library of Congress. Annabelle escorted Elaine to work each morning and picked her up at the end of the day, but the trip to Alexandria had taken longer than expected.

A gust of relief escaped her when she saw Elaine waiting safely at the bench on the corner of Second and Independence Avenue. The streetcar door opened, and Annabelle was the first person off.

“I’m here, Elaine,” she called out the moment her feet touched the ground.

Elaine swiveled her head, her blue eyes staring sightlessly past Annabelle. “Oh, thank heavens,” she said on a shaky breath.

Forty minutes might not seem like a lot to a sighted person, but the city was a new and terrifying environment for Elaine. Instead of birdsong and wind rustling through wheat fields, the busy street corner had honking horns, rattling streetcars, and hucksters shouting their wares. Any move from the safety of the bench might send Elaine straight into the path of a streetcar or over the edge of the curb.

Annabelle joined her sister on the bench, taking her hand. “Were you all right?”

“Of course I was,” Elaine said. “One of the security guards walked me here at five o’clock. What time is it now?”

Annabelle glanced at her pocket watch. “Twenty minutes to six. Alexandria didn’t look that far away on the map. I’m so sorry.”

“Well . . . it’s all right,” Elaine said after a pause. “At least I had a productive morning.”