The Last Train Home

Chapter Two

Almost immediately, the train ride became boring and monotonous.

Mr Martin tried to start up a game of I-Spy with the boys at the very back of the train trying to use inappropriate words without much success. After a few attempts, they grew bored and started to clamber over one another and fight for the window seat. Mark watched them with a smile on his face since he knew he would win the bet just by their behaviour on the train. He could smell a winning bet a mile away and enjoyed taking our money from us and spending it on sweets.

The younger ones up the front end of the train appeared to be having a lot more fun with the game then we were. We could hear them shouting out answers and giggling when they got it right and it was their turn to pick the next word. I didn't think there were that many rounds of I-Spy they could do before they ran out of words to shout out, I was wrong and the game just kept going.

For us, whilst Mr Martin continued to try and get everyone enthused about spotting things outside the window, Mark had dug out a pack of cards his Dad had given him. With Mr Martin distracted, we were able to get a small game going but we made sure that no money exchanged hands. None of us wanted to get Mr Marton's lecture on the perils of gambling and since no money was being used, it wasn't actually gambling. Just a friendly game of cards.

"How long are we supposed to be on this train again?" Enid asked, peering around Mark and placing her cards on her lap. She had never been very good at card games.

"A few hours at least," I said, looking at the watch Dad had given me before he left for the Navy.

"I don't think we're going to be able to keep ourselves occupied for that long. We've already been here for an hour and I'm bored."

"That's because you're awful at cards," Mark said, "but I still love you."

Beside me, Eva mined herself vomiting and I buried my head in my cards to keep them from seeing me laugh. Mark and Eva had only discovered they liked each other over the summer and just a few weeks before we were told we were to be evacuated. Since then, Eva and I had to put up with the two of them fawning over one another and ignoring us in favour of doing things together. More often than not, they preferred a walk in a small park near Mark's house and Eva and I would slip off to the Pictures when they weren't paying attention. We saw a lot of movies during the summer.

"We could always join in the game of I-Spy. Or, better yet, we can ask Mr Martin about his extensive pencil collection," Eva said jokingly.

"Don't even mention the word pencil. We won't hear the end of it." Mark gathered up the cards and started to shuffle them, but our card games had come to an end.

"There's an idea. I used to play a game with my dad. We'd take turns drawing a different part of a monster or a person. We couldn't see what the other person had drawn and had to fold the page over before drawing our next part. It could be fun, and it'll definitely pass the time," I said.

"Anything is better than I-Spy or a pencil collection that's about ten pencils too large."

"Coming from someone who has lost every single pencil they have ever owned, that doesn't mean anything."

I reached down and unlatched my suitcase, rooting through the clothes and endless stack of handkerchiefs until I found the paper and pencil I had managed to sneak in there. Mum had made me follow the requirements to the letter and that included not having paper or pencils with me. Of course, I broke that and stuffed some pencils and paper into my bag right before we left just in case I needed them. I might not have a large pencil collection, but I always made sure to have one on hand when I needed one.