"When the Train Calls Lonely"

[sergebroom]

I recently finished the October 2007 issue of Realms of Fantasy. As usual, it was a pleasure to read. This time around, Terri Windling’s Folkroots column was about the orphan hero. As for the fiction, all of it was enjoyable, especially When the Train Calls Lonely, by Devon Monk ( http://www.devonmonk.com ).

Set in the Midwest during the Second World War, it is the story of Elisabeth, an orphan of 15 taken in by the McMahons, farmers who gave her a home. Her great love is Johnny, the neighbor’s son who, like so many of the land’s young men, goes off to war. Some come back, dead, ghosts who get off the train just long enough for her to write one last letter to their families. And Elisabeth is afraid that, one night, Johnny will be among them, just like her adoptive father eventually is.

“Don’t go. Please.” I stood and held a hand out for him. He didn’t say he was going to miss me, the orphan daughter who did not carry his blood. The girl who saw the dying as well as the living. “Just settle back under the covers and I’ll fetch the Missus. She wouldn’t like you leaving without saying goodbye.”

Mr. McMahon smiled and his eyes were no longer hard. “She’ll see me yet. For now, I have a road to be walking and my boys to see.” He touched my hand with his fingers, and it was like winter breathing ice across my palm, burning cold.