“Attention, please!” The voice of the loudspeaker broke in on the man’s eloquence. “When we reach the next station, there will be a wait of twenty minutes for the automatic car washing. This process will be of interest to our passengers.”
The two girls had only one thought, to get off the train and stretch their legs. Arm in arm they walked down the long platform, soon engrossed in their former conversation.
“The reason I hated to leave Omaha was not because of the new house, but because I was going steady with a boy! Now we’re separated, maybe forever.”
Judy pressed Audrey’s hand to indicate how deeply she understood.
With slow, leisurely steps they walked back, remembering the car washing. They looked down the tracks. The train had vanished.
“What will we do?”
“And we haven’t any money to telegraph or anything,” Judy waved her empty purse. A stone would have been moved by that gesture.
“What’s the matter, girls?” A nice-looking gentleman, standing nearby, having heard their cries of alarm, smilingly faced them.
“The train!” they stammered in one breath. “It’s gone!”
“I wouldn’t worry if I were you,” his mouth twitched as if he wanted to laugh. “The train is down a siding, about a mile, having that grand wash. Remember? It’ll come back.”