Down World by Rebecca Phelps (best new books to read .txt) 📕

At last, I fell into a deep sleep, making a cocoon out of the sheets like I used to do at home. I was on another planet when a sound woke me—or rather, the absence of sound. It took me a minute to realize what was wrong, and then finally it occurred to me. The train had stopped.

I whipped my head out from under the blankets to find that the sun had come up. Birds were singing in a nearby tree. Piper and Robbie came back into the car before I even had a chance to take stock of what was outside the windows.

“It’s happening,” Piper said.

“Do you want to wait here?” Robbie asked me. “We might not have much time.”

“What’s happening? Where are we?” I asked, still rubbing sleep out of my eyes.

“We’re at a station,” Robbie explained. “We have to try to grab some food while we can.”

“It’s like I told you,” Piper added, clearly excited.

I nodded, everything coming back to me now that I was really awake. “I’m coming,” I said, quickly pulling on my shoes. There was no way I was staying on this train, knowing that there was a chance Robbie might not come back in time.

We walked through the door and out onto the little metal platforms that divided the cars, and Robbie unhooked the chain that dangled along the side so we could hop off.

“Won’t it look suspicious?” I asked. “If we hop off the train like this?”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Piper asked, jumping off after Robbie and then waiting for me to do the same. “They usually can’t see us.”

“How do you think we take the food?” Robbie asked, turning to me with a comforting smile. It was the old smile that I remembered, probably the first time he had really looked like himself to me. “Don’t worry, M. Nothing bad will happen.”

I nodded, believing him as I always had, and followed them into the station.

Sure enough, nobody seemed to notice we were there. We walked right in, past a crowd of bustling passengers, the signs overhead listing dozens of different destinations. I didn’t recognize any of them, except for San Francisco and Alberta.

We walked over to the food kiosks, of which there were several, and I tried to follow Piper and Robbie’s lead of acting casual while eyeing the potential assortments of fruit, snack bars, and gum offered up in baskets in front of the ordering counters. Of course, the act didn’t really seem necessary, as even more people were walking by us without seeming to see us. But I could see them, and what I noticed most of all made me do a double take.

They were all dressed like it was the ’50s, just like under the lake portal. So was this another plane like that one had been, where some sort of retro style was in vogue? Or was it actually the ’50s here? Or maybe . . . was it possible that this was the same plane as the one under the lake? And if so, could we get home from here?

A rush of adrenaline filled my veins. Could it be that simple? But before I suggested it, I had to be sure it was the same place.

I tried to listen to the conversations of passersby, to see if they were speaking Russian. I heard several languages being spoken, but mostly English. In that way, it seemed like any train station in the country, and I couldn’t be sure. I needed to find a newspaper. Maybe something in it could tip me off as to where we were.

“So I’ll meet you right back here,” Robbie said to Piper. “Keep her close, okay?”

“Of course, baby,” Piper said, giving him a little kiss. “Come on,” she said to me.

“Where are we going?”

“To use the facilities,” she answered, and I must have looked confused, wondering if that was code for something. “The little girls’ room,” she explained, motioning to a nearby sign hanging over a door that said WOMEN.

In the restroom, I did hear two women speaking Russian, but then they switched to English when I came out of the stall to wash my hands. Was that a coincidence? Or, despite what Piper had said, could they see me?

Piper and I made our way back to the food kiosks, and I was relieved to see that Robbie was already there. Robbie and Piper stood with their backs to the food baskets, and subtly shifted some things into their pockets without even looking behind them to see what they were grabbing. I did the same.

“Okay, we better get back,” Robbie said, and then he turned to me. “The stops usually only last about fifteen minutes.”

My voice caught in my throat. I still wasn’t sure this was the right dimension, and I didn’t want to suggest staying if it meant we’d be trapped in the wrong place.

I glanced quickly left and right for a newspaper, and found one in a stack by one of the food vendors. I grabbed it off the top, but I didn’t have a chance to read it as Piper was pulling my hand, all but dragging me behind her. I kept it pressed close to me as we wove through the passing crowds.

We made it back to the area outside the station, and found that at least six trains were pulled up to the various platforms, with others on their way in and out. I had no idea, of course, what our train looked like, having never seen the outside of it. And for a moment, with Robbie and Piper both scanning the possible trains and looking quite anxious as they did so, I began to panic that the train had left without us.

Maybe that was for the best. I cleared my throat before I spoke. “Robbie,” I began, “I think this might be the dimension under the lake.”

“What’s that?” Robbie asked, his eyes still scanning past various trains that were pulling