فصل 10

Ten

So here I am on the train. Dawn is coming up. I can see it through the windows on the other side of the car, pink and a little yellow at the top and dark red at the bottom. The car is almost empty, except for me and an old woman up front and a soldier across from me. All night we stopped and people got off.

By now I can’t say how far away from the valley I am, but it must be quite a way. I’ve been riding since before the night first came on, and we’ve been going pretty fast, though not as fast as we could, because this looks like an old train. At least the seats are old and uncomfortable, and I never did go to sleep.

This is flat country. No hills to talk about now that I can see it. I never been in flat country, and I wonder what it’s like to live around here. I’m used to hills, I guess, and pines, but they don’t have any trees like that around here, just low flat-looking ones that look like they wouldn’t move in any kind of breeze.

I didn’t ask the conductor where this train went. I know I should, but I just gave him Mr. Williams’ envelope and told him to let me off where it didn’t pay for the ride anymore. He hasn’t come by yet, though he’s passed down the aisle a couple of times lately, and I thought he was coming to see me and tap me on the shoulder, but he hasn’t, so I guess I have a while more to go. I hope I get off in a city, a big one. I always wanted to see a city, and you can get jobs there, and people don’t ask a lot of questions like they do in a place like the valley.

Maybe they’re up at the house now, too. The preacher’s wife would get somebody to go see where he was, I guess, but I’m not so scared now with the train getting this far away.

I want to write a letter to Aunt Mae. When I find out where I am and get a job, maybe I’ll save some money and go to Nashville and look for her. I guess they think that’s where I am, that I went to look for her.

The sun’s up full now over the short trees, and I can see the sky’s the same clear blue that it was yesterday in the valley.