As the healer advised, I rested on the bed, only getting up to eat in the dining car. I bought a ticket with an upper bunk, on which I stayed for the whole trip. The conductor, who visibly recoiled when he saw me, left me alone after checking my ticket once.
"Crow Hill," he mused. "That's the third to last station. We'll be there in a week."
"I know," I said, and grabbed my ticket back. "I'm from there."
The other passengers stopped bothering me after one of them tried to invite me for a game of bridge. Did I really look that scary?
The day before we were arriving at Crow Hill, I stepped out at one of the stations, where we had stopped for an hour. I found the nearest payphone and called father's repair shop.
"Crow Hill Repair and Machining shop, Sean Bedwen speaking," I heard.
"Dad?
