Hope for the Best

by Vanessa Lafleur

  The woman just smiled. “The last three cars are all loaded. Start with these boxes and fill the next three.”

  Before Lareina could say another word, the woman had moved further down the line to give another set of orders. Watching the area, expecting someone to stop her, she hoisted a box into her arms. It wasn’t heavy, and the contents made a slight crinkling sound every time she tilted it forward.

  The last three cars were entirely loaded. That was the information she really needed to activate her plan. As she walked toward the train, she picked at the two staples holding the flaps of her box together. It didn’t take long to pop one free then the other, so the flaps of the box bounced slightly with every step she took.

  Lowering her box, she surveyed the scene around waiting boxcars. One of the freight guards made his way from the back of the train toward the front. The other guard was on his way from the front to the back. There would be no way to avoid both of them, but she would only have to distract one. She waited for the guard heading toward the front of the train to pass, then lifted the box up in front of her face and walked right into the other guard’s path.

  He barely bumped into her, but she didn’t let him know that. She fell to the ground, dumping the box over and spilling its contents on her way down.

  “Are you okay? I’m so sorry. I saw you and tried to stop.” The guard stumbled through an apology.

  “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have had that box in front of my face.” She groaned and sat up slowly. The mess around her consisted of hundreds of individually wrapped candies scattered all over the platform. Perfect.

  Turning the box right side up, the embarrassed guard began to scoop candies back into it. He was young, maybe even a year or two younger than her. “Are you hurt?”

  She reached for some stray candies by her hand. “No, I’m okay,” she told him. “I’ve always been a klutz. They didn’t want to give me this job, but I promised I would be more careful.”

  The guard smiled, and his blue eyes sparkled. “Don’t sweat it.” He laughed. “I won’t tell them.”

  She looked down the tracks to the last car. Nick and Aaron hobbled slowly toward the train. Only a little further. Hurry up, Nick. Dropping a handful of candy into the box, she smiled. “Thank you. It’s awfully kind of you to help.”

  The guard raised his eyes and looked down the track toward the front of the train. He scanned each car, moving his eyes slowly toward the back where Nick and Aaron still stood outside in plain sight.

  “Wait, is that one by your knee!” she exclaimed. It worked. The guard dropped his eyes and felt along the ground near his leg.

  He picked up a rock and held it out for her to see. “Nope. Just a rock.”

  Lareina scooped any remaining candies into the box. “Oh, I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to miss one. You know they count these and it comes back on us if any are missing.” The fabrication came easily.

  “Of course. I understand,” the guard replied. He picked up the box and lowered it into her arms. “Now be careful. You don’t want to pick those all up again.”

  She smiled and walked toward a car that other workers rushed in and out of. Before entering, she glanced toward the back of the train. No sign of Nick and Aaron.

  Leaving her box next to several others, she followed some workers back to shrinking piles of cargo then cut around behind the ticket booth once again. She watched as people arrived to board the passenger cars, waving their tickets impatiently in front of busy guards who struggled to keep the crowd under control. The scene at the back of the train was much quieter with two guards continuing their pacing and the occasional worker carrying a cardboard box.

  Too close to her ears, the five-minute whistle blared, cutting through the calm night air like a siren. Trains didn’t always enter the station on time, but they almost always left according to schedule. I’m running out of time, she thought. I need a distraction—everyone looking in the wrong direction.

  Scanning the platform, she looked for something new, something she had missed, something she could use. Unfortunately, the entire scene looked identical to how it had minutes before. The amiable guard she talked to earlier made his way to the back of the train, about to turn around and continue his pacing back in the other direction. Before she thought it through, Lareina sprinted around the ticket booth and toward the guard.

  “Help,” she yelled at him, trying to sound alarmed. “Help!” She stopped in front of him, breathing heavily after the sudden burst of running. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and asked with concern, “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  “There are . . . looters,” she gasped trying to catch her breath, “over by the loading area . . . They’re stealing everything.”

  “Stay here,” the guard ordered. As he hurried away, she could hear him calling all guards to the shipment area on his walkie-talkie. With news spreading down the platform, chaos erupted. People scattered and ran in all directions.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered after the guard, but no one was close enough to hear her. Knowing she had limited time, she hurried toward the train. Close enough to touch it, she reached her hand out to pull herself into the last car.

  “Stop right there,” a gruff voice yelled. The volume of his command indicated that the owner stood right behind her.

  How many times has someone said that to me in the last year, she wondered, then turned around to face the most recent hindrance to her plan. An overweight guard stared back at her, and he wasn’t smiling.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he demanded.

  She couldn’t think of a single answer that would be enough to get her on the train before it departed. The best she could do was escape the current threat and catch another train later. She took a few steps back, then darted around the guard.

  “Hey,” he yelled after her, but she ignored him.

  Running along the train led her to realize that it moved with her, only slower. Lareina timed a jump through the space between two of the cars and doubled back. She could see her pursuer in the openings between cars as he ran along with her.

  “Stop,” he yelled. “You can’t get away.”

  She ran in the opposite direction that the train moved, but only had four cars to go before it ended and she lost her cover. Desperate for an escape, she reached for a bar that protruded high above the link between two cars. Picking up speed, the train swept her along with it and she clung to the slippery metal, bracing her feet against the hitch between her car and the one in front of it.

  “Hey! Hey!” the guard screamed, running alongside the train. He tried to hold onto the edge of the same car, but his hands slipped and he fell face-first onto the platform along the railroad tracks. As the train continued to gain speed, she clung to the side of the car and watched as the guard stood and stomped his foot into the hard ground. He didn’t take his eyes off the departing train but didn’t attempt to follow.

  She knew she couldn’t make the entire trip outside and with every second that passed, the speed increased. Sliding her feet along a ledge near the bottom of the car and clinging to the bar, she eased her way to the side. Wind ripped at her hair and clothes while every bump threatened to throw her from the barreling train. She reached for the open doorway, only a few feet away. A panel covered the bottom to prevent anything from sliding out, but that left the top wide open for her to climb into. Her foot slipped as the train hurtled over a bump. She hung from the ledge, feet dangling toward rushing tracks for a second before she managed to swing her lower body into the open part of the door. That left her hands clinging to the side of the train, afraid to let go, but unable to hold on for much longer.

  “Nick,” she yelled against the roaring wind. “Nick!” He’d never be able to hear her over the roaring clatter.

  Her muscles ached after only minutes of hanging on. Hope faded when she realized the next stop would be miles away. Her hands slipped slightly with each jolt. “Please don’t let me fall onto the
tracks,” she prayed. Looking down at the ground speeding under her only terrified her further, so she squeezed her eyes shut.

  “Lareina, can you hear me?”

  Nick’s voice? It can’t be real. She kept her eyes tightly shut.

  “Lareina, give me your hand,” his voice demanded.

  She looked toward the open doorway. Nick stood with his head sticking out so he could see her.

  “I can’t let go. I’m scared,” she shouted.

  “Just one hand.” He reached as far as he could. “You can’t stay out there.”

  He had a point. She decided if she was going to fall, she might as well attempt to save herself rather than wait for gravity to win. Tightening the grip of her left hand, she let go with her right hand and reached for Nick. She felt her hand in his and then his other hand tightened around her elbow.

  “Okay, I’ve got you. Now let go.”

  I can trust him, she told herself, and let her hand slide from the train. In one quick motion, he pulled her in through the opening and they crashed against a stack of crates.

  The boxcar smelled of dust and wet cardboard. It tickled her nose as she lay with her cheek against the floor, stunned, breathing stale air, waiting for her heart to beat at a normal rate. Ankles, wrists, and left ear jolted against the solid platform beneath her as the train bumped along, carrying her with it.

  Careful hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her up through the darkness. “Lareina, are you okay?” Nick’s voice sounded like raindrops in a drought. His face hovered close enough that she could pick out every familiar feature.

  A tingling sensation of near death and returning life surged through her fingertips, elbows, shoulders. Mounting realization spread a smile over her face. She lunged forward, wrapped her arms around Nick, and toppled them back into a wall of boxes. They both laughed, and despite a sharp corner smashed against her spine, she couldn’t compel herself to let go of him.

  “Never let me do something like that again.” Her voice shook so intensely she didn’t recognize it.

  “I didn’t think you were going to make it.” He hugged her so tight she couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t protest. “When the train started moving, I thought for sure we were leaving you behind.”

  “Hey, are you guys all right over there?” Aaron’s hoarse voice swerved through a maze of crates and cardboard.

  The train lurched, threatening to toss them both back to the floor, but Nick kept them balanced. Finally, she loosened her grip and the two of them crawled over to where Aaron rested against the opposite wall. Bandaged leg stretched in front of him, jacket unzipped, head lolling at the mercy of the train, he grinned at her.

  “I missed it. How did you manage to get on the train?”

  Lareina slid and shifted until she sat directly next to him. Their shoulders brushed and she leaned her head closer to his. “I wish I had missed it.”

  She felt Aaron smile.

  “I can hardly believe it,” Nick whispered and glanced back toward the door as if he expected someone to enter. “We made the plan work.”

  She couldn’t believe it either. She had finally caught her train. The train that would take her home to food and shelter, warmth and belonging. The train that would carry the family she always wanted to safety. Glittering shards of light crisscrossing through trees and buildings outside painted flickering shadows across cargo of varying sizes, Nick’s jacket, Aaron’s face. Reaching into her pocket, she outlined the triangular perimeter of Susan’s pendant. She traced each letter, S-P-E-R-O, on the smooth surface of the strange necklace that had brought her so close to death on so many occasions. Hope for the best, she thought, but don’t expect it just to happen.

  “What’s wrong?” Nick asked.

  “You still have your pendant, right?”

  He reached into his pocket and held it up in front of her. She nodded and untied her shoelace.

  “What are you doing?” Aaron asked.

  Pulling her shoe off, she dropped the pendant inside. “Just taking a slight precaution, in case things don’t go according to the plan. It might be a little uncomfortable, but they’ll search our pockets before our shoes.”

  Nick pulled his shoe off and did the same. “There are far worse discomforts. I don’t think our plans ever work exactly the way they’re supposed to.”

  Sliding her foot back into her shoe, she took her time tying it tight. She closed her eyes, sank into the boxcar’s cold wall, and laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Nick watched her with his head tilted to the side, his expression trying to decide whether to smile or check her for a fever.

  Aaron coughed, his breath serrated, and his head drooped to Lareina’s shoulder. She slid her arm around him, and Nick dug out a half full bottle of water.

  “I’m all right,” Aaron assured after a few swallows. “Go back to laughing.”

  Holding the back of her hand against Aaron’s hot forehead, she reminded herself that they were on their way to help. “After everything that’s happened, this doesn’t seem real.”

  “It better be real.” Nick laughed. “Otherwise we’re all looking at the same mirage.”

  “Maybe that bread was moldy.” Aaron’s voice had the strength of a fading echo. “It could cause hallucinations.”

  “Lareina didn’t eat any of the bread, so as long as she sees what we’re seeing, it’s real.” Nick crumpled his jacket into a pillow and stretched out near her feet. He curled his arms around the jacket and casually rested his blond curls on the homemade cushion, as if he swung on a hammock in his backyard. “Everyone get some rest. We’ll be on this train all night. We can figure out how far we got in the morning.”

  Moonlight broke into long rectangles then floated through the car just to be replaced by the same monotonous pattern. Her eyelids slid toward sleep, but in the darkness Galloway’s ghost paced in the shadows of towering boxes. The reliable rhythm of the train clacking forward mixed with his voice. I’ll always find you. For months she had feared he could see her every step, and now the thought of his presence, there on the train, made her shiver. The pendant burned against her heel as if its shimmering surface picked up energy in the pocket of air between her sock and shoe.

  Lareina opened her eyes. The moonlight replayed its usual pattern, clacking metal swallowed silence, cargo vibrated with a whoosh of scraping cardboard. Aaron’s head bobbled against her. His cheek burned through her jacket, a hot coal dropped onto her shoulder. Nudging Nick’s arm with her shoe, she whispered his name. He flinched, drawing his knees halfway to his chest before slipping back into sleep. She held Aaron’s hand in hers, tried to cushion his head from the worst of the bumps, and willed the train to move faster, the seconds to race by, his fever to drop. Each click against the rail represented progress.

  “Almost there,” she whispered. “We’re so close now.”

  When they finally stopped in Maibe, would they be welcomed or turned away? Could anyone be following them? Was Aaron’s fever getting worse? The questions were a constant torment that cycled through her head as if they rode a looping conveyor belt. They were going home, but she didn’t know what that meant or what to expect. Would anyone remember her? Would it be better if they didn’t? The people she remembered, Rochelle and the others, they couldn’t have changed in the way the rest of society seemed to be altering. In Maibe, people didn’t leave family members out in the yard to die of the fever. They didn’t charge admission fees into the hospital or sentence newcomers to forced labor digging tunnels. Did they?

  The train lurched and slowed; Lareina felt her thoughts stay behind in the icy darkness as momentum shifted her body forward then motion caught up and ripped her back into place. For the fifteenth time, a blaring whistle announced their approach to another town. She looked from Nick to Aaron, both sound asleep in the shadowy corner of the boxcar, the only speck of the world that she could be sure of. Every glittering minute carried them farther away from murdering pendant thieves, infected cities, and
cities under siege. The train picked up speed once again, racing through darkness toward hope for a better future and the only place that had ever felt like home.

  About the Author

  Vanessa Lafleur is a full-time high school English and creative writing teacher, competitive speech coach, and middle school volleyball coach. She lives in Nebraska and teaches at the school she graduated from.

  Her absolute favorite part of teaching is helping her students discover their writing talents and hone their skills.

  When she isn’t in the classroom, grading research papers, or coaching at a speech meet, Vanessa enjoys spending time outside, reading, and of course, writing. Thanks to her amazing students and their encouragement, Vanessa was inspired to draft a story for them and anyone looking for an adventure about finding your place in the world.

  Hope for the Best is her debut novel.

  For more information about Vanessa and her book, visit www.vanessalafleur.com