I step onto the train just after eleven, the platform still damp from the morning rain that never quite decided to stop. My bag is light, just a change of clothes and a book I probably won’t open, and I claim a seat in the nearly empty car, window side, facing forward. The air smells of metal, old upholstery, and the faint citrus cleaner they use between runs. Outside, the station slides past in a blur of concrete and faded posters as we pull away.For twenty minutes, nothing happens. Fields replace the city. I stretch my legs into the aisle and watch the countryside roll by, low green hills, a line of trees bent by the wind, the occasional farmhouse with its windows shut against the weather. Then the door at the far end of the car opens, and she walks in.She is carrying a soft leather tote and a folded coat. Blue jeans, a loose white shirt that has come untucked on one side, boots that look broken in. Her hair is pulled back, but pieces have escaped around her face. She scans the em
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