“Patience, Henry.” Coralis spoke silently into his mind. “It will become clear all too soon.”

The train shuddered to a stop. Through the window, they could see a lone figure seated on a low brick wall. The children stared at her.

“Grandma?”

“Hello, Henry!” She hugged him tightly. “My, how you’ve grown.”

This was the same old woman they had seen in their driveway. The one their mother called Mom.

She hadn’t changed since they’d seen her that day. Tan, wrinkled face, warm brown eyes. Salt-and-pepper hair pulled back into a tight bun. The strength of her hug was much greater than Henry expected from her small, slender frame.

“Coralis.” She released Henry and shook his hand vigorously. “I never thought I’d actually get to meet you. It is an honor, sir.”

Coralis winced from her grip. Henry chuckled. “A pleasure to meet you, madam. But I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage.”

“I am Henry’s grandmother, Gailene Granoble. I was sent to pick you up.” She looked past him at the few passengers departing from the train. “But where is Brianna?”

A blue nose poked out from Coralis’s coat pocket. “Hello, Grandma,” Brianna said timidly.

“Oh my.” Gailene blinked several times, flustered. But more surprisingly, she rubbed her hand briskly over her own hair, the spitting image of Henry. “Well then. I … um … perhaps we should go.” She grabbed Henry’s backpack and strode across a set of train tracks, disappearing behind the well-manicured landscaping on her way to the parking lot.

“So much for grandmotherly love,” said Brianna.

Coralis tapped her lightly on the head. “I believe she thought she was surprising us, when clearly the surprise was on her.” He laughed.

She giggled. “It was kinda funny.”

Henry smiled, too, but for a different reason.

Grandma Gailene led them all to a familiar van, white with GRANOBLE’S GRANARY printed in big green letters.

They all climbed in, Henry taking Brianna in the back with him.

“You kids have never been out here before, though goodness knows I’ve begged your mother to bring you. Just wait till you see the stars! Billions of them. It’s going to make you feel very small.”

She started the van and pulled onto the main road. “The train station is beautiful, isn’t it?” she said, apparently recovering from the shock of seeing Brianna. “There’s even a small bed-and-breakfast attached. The only passengers arrive on the Southwest Chief. But more than one hundred freight trains a day roll through here. Back in the old days, the Chief would carry movie stars out here from Hollywood. They made a lot of Westerns on the reservation. I even got to meet John Wayne!” Her eyes lit up and her face beamed with pride as she looked at Henry in the rearview mirror.

Clearly, he was supposed to be impressed. But he racked his brain and came up empty, finally shrugging his shoulders.