Read Online February Fever by Jess Lourey - Free Book Online Page A

under the table.
    â€œLook!” I said after I returned to my chair, dropping the laminated information card and pointing out the window. “A deer!”
    Judging by how fast cars passed us, the train was traveling around fifty miles an hour. Detroit Lakes had vanished, and we were now in open country. Western Minnesota in February is mostly prairie, occasional tufts of golden-brown grass peeping through the snow dunes.
    â€œAre you twelve years old? There’s deer all over the place back home. Do you want to draw me a picture of it, and I can stick it on the fridge?”
    I snatched her champagne from her hand and took a swig before handing it back. “Mrs. Crabby-appleton, rotten to the core …”
    â€œExcuse me for believing the advertising. I was told our cabin would be ‘roomy,’ and I get to be pissy about that lie for as long as it takes.”
    â€œCome on, grumbly bunny. Let’s go explore! That’ll cheer you up, and you’ll see that we get to use the whole train. It’s not like we’re going to be stuck in this one room the whole time.” The irony was not lost on me that only an hour ago, being stuck in this one room the whole time and avoiding social interaction had been my exact plan and she was the one who’d been excited for this trip. Something about being on a train stoked my feeling of adventure, while the smallness of the transportation seemed to have the opposite effect on her.
    â€œNo,” she pouted.
    Someone knocked at our door. I leaned over and slid it open without leaving my chair. It was a new porter, maybe the one who had been sick earlier. He was wearing the same uniform as the previous one, but he was older, maybe sixty, and African-American. He handed me a card.
    â€œI took the liberty of making a dinner reservation for you two at seven thirty, immediately after we leave Fargo.”
    I squealed. It was all I could do not to hug him. Someone had made a reservation for me to eat a free meal on a train! Well, a meal Mrs. Berns had already paid for, in any case. “Is the dining car just like it is in the old-fashioned Westerns?”
    His lips twitched. “Fewer cowboys, ma’am, but I expect the food hasn’t changed much.”
    I smiled back, glancing down at his name tag. “Thank you, Reed. By the way, I’m Mira, and this is Mrs. Berns.”
    He tipped his hat at both of us. “Nice to meet you, ladies. You can contact me with any problems, but I’m not assigned to your car. There’s a nasty bug going around—nothing to worry about, but a lot of us staff are pulling different shifts. Might see you in the dining car. That’s my regular. Otherwise, Sylvester is your porter, twenty-seven-year-old kid, a little impetuous, but not a bad sort. He handled boarding at the last stop, so you may have already met him.”
    Reed tipped his hat again and moved on to Ms. Wrenshall’s room, number 3. I got out of my chair to watch the action. Ms. Wrenshall didn’t answer. I glanced to my right, at Room 1. I hadn’t seen anyone go in or out. I stepped into the hall and spotted the Do Not Disturb placard hung over their curtained window. I wondered why Ms. Wrenshall hadn’t used hers. She’d said, after all, that the porter, presumably Sylvester, had been getting her up at all hours. Maybe she was just crazy.
    Reed walked toward the rear of the train, probably passing out dinner reservations to all the sleeper cars. I turned back to Mrs. Berns to re-implore her to explore with me. She was snoring softly in her chair.
    â€œYou should have just told me you needed a nap,” I said softly, unfolding a blanket from the closet to drape over her. I grabbed the Do Not Disturb sign from our closet, closed the door behind me, and stuck the placard in its slot on the door before heading to all the action.

Ten
    I’d counted sixteen cars before boarding the train. Two in the rear