"Heusler, Marianna - The Last Train Ride" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heusler Marianna)

THE LAST TRAIN RIDE
By Marianna Heusler

The train was unreserved, stuffy, crowded. Mindy spotted two vacant seats side by side. She had a choice. She could sit in one of them, hoping no one would occupy the other - or she could choose an empty space beside someone who looked halfway normal, someone engrossed in a book or someone sound asleep. She chose the former, deciding to take a chance. "Bad choices" could be a title for her life story.
She gently placed her suitcase in the rack overhead; the clasp was broken. She threw her backpack on the empty seat beside her. For the first twenty minutes the trip was pleasant, uneventful. She was able to catch up with her English literature reading and to begin her term paper on the history of Latin America. Sophomore year at college was certainly grueling. And her social life wasn't much better. Lately, she and David had been fighting all the time. Something was terribly wrong with the relationship, but Mindy couldn't put her finger on just what the problem was.

Lately, David had been acting strangely, always on his cell phone, and very evasive when she questioned him. Now Mindy's grandmother wasn't feeling well, and Mindy's mother insisted that Mindy make the one hundred mile trip to visit her. David thought some time apart was a good idea. Yet the desire to call David - just to hear his voice - was overwhelming and she could always use her cell phone. She wouldn't do it. If David wanted time apart, he would get it.

After the train stopped at Wallingford an old woman approached Mindy.

"This seat isn't taken." It wasn't a question; rather, to Mindy it seemed more like an accusation. The voice was irritating, high pitched, like a manic parakeet.

Mindy looked at the woman with resentment. She noted her acrylic fuchsia sweater, her purple polyester pants, her large loop earrings, her garish blue eye shadow and her bright scarlet lipstick. And then there was that overpowering fragrance, a musky sweet perfume that could not disguise an underlying odor, the source of which Mindy dared not speculate on. Mindy hesitated as her eyes darted, searching desperately for help.

She observed a man approaching in the distance, an ordinary guy, wheeling a large suitcase down the aisle.

"Ma'am." Mindy looked up at the conductor, who was staring at her with some annoyance. "Could you please remove your backpack from the seat and let this elderly lady sit down? The train is crowded. You'll have to put your personal belongings overhead."

Mindy, then, had no choice, although she wasn't too happy about it. She grabbed her backpack and placed it on her lap. The smell from the woman would probably kill her before she reached Springfield. She could identify it now - garlic and onion mixed with vanilla. Disgusting.

"That's better," the woman leaned back into the seat and opened her plastic red pocketbook.

Mindy tried not to stare as the woman rummaged through used tissues, crumpled dollars, a broken rouge case, and finally settled on an ripped bag of sunflower seeds, which she began to greedily suck into her wrinkled mouth.

"Want some?" She held the bag out to Mindy. Some of the seeds fell on Mindy's spanking new DKNY white tee shirt.

"No, thanks." Mindy lowered her head and stared at the textbook, cursing herself for not bringing her Walkman. Instead she'd pretend to be absorbed by her studies. Whatever she did, she mustn't make eye contact with the old woman.

"See that man over there?"

In spite of her resolution, Mindy looked up at the same gentleman she had hoped might have been her seat partner. He had sat down beside an older man who was sound asleep. Lucky him.

"He's going to his father's funeral."

"Do you know him?"

The woman shook her head.

She's a nut, Mindy thought, and why should that be a surprise?

"His father died very suddenly, though. Heart attack, didn't suffer much."

Mindy took a closer look at the man. Perhaps he was someone famous whom she hadn't recognized at first, someone whose personal life was newsworthy.

"Not like your grandmother."

Mindy stared at the woman in shock and confusion.

"That cancer is bad, real bad."