Midnight Train to Prague - Carol Windley Page 0,12

said there was a situation in which a passenger had experienced some difficulty getting his breath. He had then seemed to fall asleep, but he couldn’t be roused, and his breathing was labored. Likely a simple case of heat prostration, the assistant conductor said, wouldn’t you think, Frau Doktor?

“Perhaps,” Dr. Schaefferová said. Her husband was several coaches away. Could anyone keep an eye on her son for her? Natalia said she would be pleased to do that. “This is Franz,” Dr. Schaefferová said. “I am Natalia,” Natalia said, smiling at Franz, who clung to his mother’s hand. His lower lip trembled. Natalia told him they would follow along behind his mother.

In the first-class coach, a porter had remained with the patient, who was slumped over in his seat, his hands limp at his sides, his hunter-green jacket buttoned almost to his chin. His brown leather shoes looked new, scarcely worn, Natalia noticed. His book and eyeglasses and a cellophane bag of peppermints had been set on the seat beside him. Dr. Schaefferová felt for a pulse in the man’s wrist and neck. Natalia hesitated. But she must remove the little boy from this distressing scene. She walked with him to the end of the coach, which had been emptied of passengers. She chatted to Franz about the speed the train would go once it started moving again—as it would soon, she said. He looked hot in his long-sleeved smock. She picked him up, so that he could feel the slight breeze at an open window, and he placed his arm around her neck.

“Do you see the ducks on the riverbank,” she said. “They’re eating grass, aren’t they? And do you see the boats on the river? There’s a paddle steamer. It’s pretty isn’t it?”

He frowned; paddle steamers were not pretty, he said; they were boats. Where he lived, there was a river full of fish. It had so many fish they almost jumped out of the water into his father’s fishing basket. At home, Sora cut off the heads with a knife. The fish were completely dead, he said, and Sora put the heads and tails on a plate for their cat. Natalia said she had a cat called Benno, and he, also, was crazy about fish. She set Franz down on his feet.

“Where’s my mother?” he said.

“She’s helping someone. Do you see how, at times, the river appears higher than the road? It’s an optical illusion, I suppose. Isn’t that funny?”

“Yes,” Franz said. “It is funny.” He had been to Heidelberg, to visit his grandparents. In Heidelberg there was a river called the Neckar, and this river was called the Elbe. His river, the one he and his father fished in, was the Vltava. In German, it was called the Moldau. He hoped one day to fish out at sea in a big boat. He would put a net in the water and catch the most enormous fish in the sea. “Is the train broken?” he asked.

“No, it will start again soon,” she said.

“My mother is a doctor. She makes people well.”

“You’re very lucky to have her for a mother,” Natalia said.

“Yes, I am,” he said.

Dr. Schaefferová stepped out into the corridor. She shook her head slightly. “There was nothing we could do, I’m afraid,” she said. She smoothed Franz’s hair and asked if he’d been a good boy. He glanced shyly at Natalia and nodded. Natalia hated to part with him. How wonderful, she thought, to have a child of your own, a little boy like Franz. But it was unseemly—wasn’t it?—to anticipate the future in the presence of death, even if the deceased had nothing to do with her. So she thought, and would have continued to think, had Beatriz not entered the coach at that moment. She was with Herr Becker. As soon as he had told her about a passenger falling ill, she had started to worry that it was someone she knew and had decided there was only one way to put her mind at rest. Before the assistant conductor could stop her, she slid open the compartment door, went in, and knelt and took the man’s hands in hers. “It’s all right, my dear, I am here,” she said, as if he could hear her. She looked at Dr. Schaefferová. “He’s not sleeping, is he?” she said.

“No, he’s not sleeping,” the doctor said.

“Only an hour or so ago we were talking, and he was fine, in good health, he said so himself. He