There was a long line at theticket office,so we could not telephone our mothers. Suddenly someone shouted, “The train’s going.We’ll miss it !’ The line broke up and people started running.
Soldier and I started running with them.We got on the train just in time.
I said, ‘I’ll ring my mother from the station.’
‘All right.Is there anyone else you want to ring?’
‘You mean Dr.Nixon? If he picked us up in his car it would save a lot of time.’
We didn’t say anything after that and just looked out of the window.It had been cold in town but there had been no real snoe.There was plenty of snow here. The fields were convered with it.
A little old lady was eating sandwiches out of a paper bag.
Soldier and I sat and watched hungrily as she ate them.I had not eaten anything all day.Soldier had eaten my breakfast up in the tree.I felt myself getting hungrier as I watched the old lady as she slowly ate the sandwiches.
Suddenly I felt Soldier move beside me,and I looked where he was looking.A man opposite us had a newspaper in front of his face,but he put it down.It only took about a half a second to see there was something wrong with his smile.We had seen that smile twice already today.
My stomach began to turn over and over,and just then the train went into a tunnel.In the blackness a hand came from the other side of the carriage and caught my knee.I knew it wasn’t Soldier’s hand because he was sitting beside me.I knew it was a large hand because it had wrapped itself around my knee.But for a few seconds all I did was sit in my seat while my skin crawled and my hair stood up on end.In the darkness I heard something,a paper noise.And I did move then-fast.
I twisted my head so he would hit the seat –back instead of me,and at the same time I pulled up my leg ready to kick.And just at that minute the train came into the light and the old lady was shaking my knee with one hand and giving me a sandwich from her paper bag with the other.
I suddenly couldn’t eat.
Soldier was sitting with his mouth wide open.He was watching the Smiler.Smiler wasn’t looking back at him.His eyes were closed now.
I said quietly’ ‘Come on,’ and got up and stepped carefully into the corridor.Soldier followed me.And just about ten seconds later I heard the noise of the door again and looked back.smiler
Was coming up the corridor too.
I felt bind and helpless, and my only thought was to run.So I kicked soldier and he understood,and we ran up the corridor.
One of the things about a train corridor,there aren't a lot of places to hide in it. The corridor is long and straight.Anyone coming up one end can see what happens to a person at the other. But at the end of the corridor there is a little bend,and in the little bend a little toilet .We got to the end, and there was a toilet,and a man was coming out of it and going into the next carriage. And at once, without thought, I pulled Soldier backwards,and a second later we were both in there, with the door locked.
'Woolcott.' Soldier said. "What are we going to do?'
'Just keep quiet.'
' But how did he find us? Was he watching the house?'
' He must have kept his eyes on us as well.
Just then I heard the corridor door open again. I said 'soldier That was him. He's gone down the train. Just keep quiet and I'll see.'
I waited a few seconds and unlocked the door and opened it.There wasn't anybody there. I went up to the door, and nobody was there either. I turned round and smiled, which was about the last time I smiled for a week. smiler was standing there. He was smiling back at me. He was leaning against a window, and he wasn't really looking at me but at the window. He could see me in the glass as clearly as I saw him.
I ran back to the toilet, quicker than I'd ever moved in my life, but I hadn't quite got there when there was a noise and a crash and I was on the floor. The train had put on its brakes. As I came up off the floor I saw something else.
There was another door there. There was a door between the toilet door and the corridor door. It was a door out of the train. And from where he standing, smiler couldn't see it.
There was no handle on the inside of the door. The handle was on the outside.You had to open the window to get at it.
I went back to the toilet.I said,soldier's can you jump off the train?'
Soldier's mouth was shaking.He said,'We can't jump off it. We'd break our necks!'
'No,we wouldn't. It's going quite slow. We've got to do it now.'
He started to say, 'What do you mean?' So I put my hand over his mouth and told him as quickly as I could. His mouth was still open as I took my hand away, but he didn't say anything.
He followed me out of the toilet. I opened the window and got my arm out, and turned the handle and pushed the door open.
I said, 'You first.'
I'm not going first.'
I said, 'All right.'
I went out along the edge to leave room for him. I wanted to close the door after he'd got out. There wasn't anything to hold on to, and I just hoped he'd come out quickly.
His mouth was open and his eyes, too, were wide open. He was hanging on the door as if he'd never let go, so l reached over past him and said, 'All right, Soldier. Just hang on. I've got to shut the door,' and he understood. At that moment he fell off.
I didn't look to see what happened to him. I just shut the door and jumped too.
The train must have been going about fifty klometres an hour, maybe fifty-five--too fast for an easy jump. I felt the wind, and then my mouth was full of wind and snow, and I was twisting over in the air and it felt icy and hard. I hit the ground and rolled over and over and felt a sharp pain in my knee. Then 1 was sitting between the railway lines, sick with the pain in my knee. I looked round and there was Soldier sitting between the lines, too. I turned to watch the train and saw it disappear round a ben. I stood up.Soldier started walking towards me.
There wasn't anything to see: empty land,grey sky,falling snow,while fields. That was quarter past twelve on Saturday, 24 December. We had just three hours of daylight left.
I said, 'There ought to be a road over on the right. I saw it when we went through a village a few kilometres back. We'd better get to the road and try to get a ride into town.'
It was pretty bad, the knee. It made me feel sick just to put any weight on it. But I knew I had to walk.
The snow was about a third of a metre deep, but the wind had blown so it was up to our arms in some places. We went in a couple of times, and some time during this soldier started to fall behind. I heard him when he started to cry and looked round and he was some way back, so I waited for him.
He was still crying when he came up and I said, 'What's the matter with you?' But I could see what was the matter. His legs were blue. He didn't have long trousers. He just had school shorts. Above the knees his legs were red, but below they were blue.
He said, 'Oh, Woolcott-my legs!'
I said, 'You've got to move a bit faster on them.' We had a long way to go yet. I couldn't even see how far we had to go.
It began to snow again about two o'clock. We knew when it was two because we heard a church clock.
Soldier said, 'Did you hear that?'
Yeah.'
Where is it?' Soldier asked.
I said, 'Not far. You couldn't tell where because of the snow.
'You think it's the village?'
'There's a church and so there ought to be a village.'We got to the road about ten minutes later. I don't know what we expected to find there. There wasn't anything there. There wasn't footmark in the snow. even a nd, grey sky, talling Snow white fields. That was quarter past twelve on Saturday, 24 December. We had just three hours of daylight left. I said, 'There ought to be a road over on the right saw it when we went through a village a few kilometres back. We'd better get to the road and try to get a ride into town. It was pretty bad, the knee. It made me feel sick just to put any weight on it. But I knew I had to walk. The snow was about a third of a metre deep, but the wind had blown so it was up to our arms in some places. We went in a couple of times, and some time during this soldier started to fall behind. I heard him when he started to cry and looked round and he was some way back, so I waited for him. He was still crying when he came up and I said, 'What's the matter with you?' But I could see what was the matter. His l were blue. He didn't have long trousers. He just had school shorts. Above the knees his legs were red, but below they were blue. He said, 'Oh, Woolcott-my legs!'
I said, 'You've got to move a bit faster on them.' We had a long way to go yet. I couldn't see how far we had to go.
It began to snow again about two o'clock. We knew when it was two because we heard a church clock.
Soldier said, 'Did you hear that?
'Yeah.'
'Where is it?' Soldier asked.
I said, 'Not far. You couldn't tell where because of the snow
'You think it's the village?'
'There's a church and so there ought to be village.'
We got to the road about ten minutes later. I don't know what we expected to find there. There wasn't anything there. There wasn't footmark in the snow.
We heard a sound about ten minutes later. It sounded like shouting, and was followed by the Sound of a car.
'A Ford,' Soldier said,listening.'An old V-8.Going fast, too.
It was going fast.lt couldn't go as fast as that in thick snow. Whatever road it was on, the snow had been cleared off it. The clock sounded again, the half hour. But it came from behind us,and was further off.
We'd gone wrong, but I didn't say anything. We just kept on. It was getting dark now, and we'd walked three hours. We were terribly hungry. We hadn't seen a living thing and everything we did was wrong.
I said, 'It can't be much farther now.'
'No,' Soldier said.
It wasn't much farther. We went around a bend in the road and there it was, the first light. There was just this one light. It was coming fro