Sophie handed hers over. He looked at it, looked at her, and made a strange clicking noise in the back of his throat. He shook his head and said something under his breath. Then he shrugged, checked both Marianne’s and Delphine’s tickets, and left. They heard him walking up the corridor, yelling,“Beel-yet!”
“At least we’ve learned one word,” Marianne said, folding her ticket up and putting it away.
“He looked surprised,” Sophie said, staring at her ticket as if she would suddenly become able to read Russian, or find the answer to their situation printed on it. “I wonder why?”
Within minutes, they found out.
The conductor reappeared and picked up their bags, moving them into the corridor.
Marianne said, “What’s he doing? Why is he taking our bags?”
Delphine pulled at the man’s sleeve. “Leave my things alone!”
The conductor ignored her. Sophie got the impression that, although a small man, he was used to getting people off trains without any bother. And without losing any time.
Sophie and Marianne found themselves moving toward the door. But Delphine stayed in her seat. She folded her arms, crossed her legs, and stared straight ahead. The conductor took her by the shoulder. She shook him off. He took her shoulder more forcefully. Sophie saw her wince.
“Come on, Delphine,” she whispered. “This won’t help.”
Delphine’s mouth became harder as the conductor maneuvered her out of the compartment. But despite the determined angle of her jaw, her resistance was just for show. The whole episode seemed to have achieved a dynamic and an inevitability of its own, as if they were moving through a dream.
The train slowed down. The conductor opened the door. Snow flew into the train.
“There must be a mistake!” Sophie said desperately.
The conductor shrugged. “Maybe mistake on teekit,” he said. “No station! Only old platform. But you leave where teekit say.”
Then he threw Sophie’s rucksack out into the night before picking up the first of Delphine’s suitcases with two hands.
It was as if Delphine suddenly came to life. She screamed at him in French to put the suitcase down, how dare he, she would kill him with her bare hands if he so much as touched anything of hers. And then, as the suitcases went out into the night, she cried,“Mes vêtements!”And pushing past the others, she leaped from the train.
The brakes squealed and the conductor yelled,“Uiditye!”
Marianne turned her head as if it were filled with concrete. “What did he say?”
To Sophie, her voice sounded far away. She had a sense that she was looking at everything through very thick glass. Even if she spoke, she wasn’t sure that Marianne would hear her.
The man bellowed, “Von.Out!”
Marianne’s suitcase was thrown into the snow. And now the conductor clamped a small white hand around Marianne’s arm as if he would throw her, too, from the train.
Confused, frightened, but unable to know what else they could do, both girls jumped down, into the dark and the fury of the storm, and onto a narrow platform that was completely covered in deep, deep snow.
Sophie and Marianne clung to each other as the lights of the train floated off into the night. The wind snapped at their fingers and faces and screamed in their ears. Snow jabbed and stung their eyes.
They were nowhere. This was no longer even a station. How could they have been put off the train here?
Delphine was gone. It was as if she had jumped into nothingness, another world, perhaps.
All Sophie could think was that they couldn’t stay on the platform, if it evenwasa platform. This snow, this wind, was not romantic, as she had thought it might be from the safety of the train station. It was vicious and savage. They had to find Delphine so they could get out of the cold, find shelter, just so they could think about what to do next.
Sophie squinted her eyes, concentrated really hard, and tried to peer through the dark and the driving snow. “Delphine!” she yelled. But her voice was whipped away to nothing by the wind. She took a step forward, dragging Marianne with her. “We have to get out of the storm!”
Another step, and then, not knowing how, she found herself tipping forward into snow, a live creature at her feet. She screamed and tried to crawl away, but the creature grabbed her foot. It was sobbing and calling her name.
“You idiot, Delphine!” Sophie cried. “What are you doing?”
“My suitcases! I need to find my suitcases!” Delphine scrabbled frantically in the snow.
