curving slightly.
Twenty minutes later, the strange whirring noise grew louder. With a jerk, the train careened forward, pushing many people up from their seats—and causing half a dozen bags to fall out of the overhead bins.
As his backpack and her tote crashed to the floor beside him, then slid down the aisle, Calvin jumped up to retrieve them. But of course, right then the train jerked and rocked. And the lights went out again.
“Calvin?” Katie called out.
“Everything’s okay,” he said. “I’ll be right there. I just have to pick up our things,” he explained . . . just as the car wobbled on the tracks.
Worried cries echoed throughout the car as the screech of brakes pierced the air, followed by yet another jerk as, it seemed, the engineer struggled for control.
And Calvin attempted the same, grabbing for the edge of a seat to situate himself. Then, with a sputter and a last dying gasp, the train gave up its battle. Below their feet, a thousand gears screeched and then, with a loud, exuberant sigh, jerked to a stop again.
Bringing yet another batch of luggage, books, umbrellas, and jackets down.
Calvin held on tight as he was pummeled. Something heavy with a sharp edge knocked his head; another item ripped his shirt. “Umph,” he grunted.
“Calvin?” Katie asked, her voice tinged with fear. “Calvin? Are you all right?”
He was not. His arm stung, and his forehead felt like it had been introduced to the wrong end of a frying pan.
But that was surely not something he was going to admit so openly. In the dim shadows, he spied their things. With a grunt, he picked up his backpack and little Katie’s pink tote. Spying a notebook near his feet that looked to have fallen out of Lucy’s bag, he picked it up, then hastily stuffed it into his things. When things were calmer, he’d sort out whose items were whose.
“I’ve got Katie,” Lucy called out. “Come sit with us.”
More grateful than ever for Lucy, Calvin trudged back to his seat as an attendant came into the car holding a portable lantern so everyone could get settled.
“Remind me not to do something so foolhardy again,” he murmured as he gingerly sat back down. Then he turned to his sister, who was perched on Lucy’s lap. “Are you okay?”
Eyes wide, she nodded.
Well, that was not like her at all. Usually she chirped like a magpie. Over Katie’s head he met Lucy’s gaze. “Is she hurt?”
“I think she is just scared.” Her voice caught. “But, Calvin, I fear you’re bleeding.”
He held up his arm and inspected it. “Where? What can you see?”
“I don’t see much on your arm, but your forehead is another story,” she murmured as she pulled a tissue from a pocket in her dress.
“There’s blood on your shirt, Calvin,” Katie murmured. “You’re hurt bad. We should go tell Uncle John.”
Calvin laughed. “I’m too old to go running to my uncle, Katie. I’m sure this is nothing to fret about, anyway. Heads bleed a lot when they’re cut. I’ll be right as rain soon,” he said, hoping he sounded more sure than he felt.
Though his whole body felt like he’d been thrown from a horse, Calvin twisted and looked outside beyond the girls, craning his neck in what he knew was a futile attempt to see what problem had occurred. Of course he saw nothing.
“I wonder where we are,” Lucy said.
“I truly have no idea.”
“What do you think this means?” the woman in front of them asked. “Do you think we’ll all have to disembark?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said. “I’ve never heard of such a thing happening.”
Calvin looked around at the other people doing much the same as he—peering out with worried expressions—and found his uncle. “John, do ya know where we are?”
“Near Toledo, I think. My guess is twenty miles out.”
“So we’re nowhere near the train station.” Leaning toward Lucy, Calvin said drily, “I fear things still aren’t getting any better.”
To his pleasure, he felt her muscles relax next to him, and Lucy said, “Now we can only hope they don’t get much worse.”
Causing Calvin to smile, right there in the dim light.
Minutes later, Katie pressed her lips to Lucy’s ear. “I have to go to the bathroom,” Katie whispered, but it was loud enough to make Lucy’s ear ring. “What should I do?”
“Wait.”
She squirmed. “But, Lucy, I don’t think I can wait verra long.”
In spite of the situation, Lucy found herself chuckling. Of course, Katie would have such