Frequently Asked Questions
The Elsewhere Express
Passenger Handbook
Raya
Dev strode into the salon, looking as surprised as Q and Raya were to see him. “Oh, hello.” He waved. “You’re the last two people I expected to find here. New passengers don’t usually need Manon’s services.”
“They aren’t clients.” Manon followed him into the salon. “At least, not yet. Maybe you can convince them.”
“I think your perfumes can speak for themselves. Anything I say could never do them justice.”
Manon smiled. “You’re too kind.”
Pavo strutted over carrying a small velvet pouch in its beak. Manon took the pouch from it. “Thank you, Pavo,” she said, offering pumpkin seeds in exchange. Pavo pecked her palm clean and made its way back to the mural. Manon handed the red pouch to Dev. “Enjoy.”
“Thank you.” Dev loosened the pouch’s string and drew out a small round bottle with a crystal stopper shaped like a hummingbird. “Beautiful as always.” He looked at Raya and Q. “Have a sniff.”
The bird-shaped stopper took flight, leaving a scented trail in the air. Raya closed her eyes and followed it, leaping on stepping stonesof memories. She skipped from a bedtime story to a hug, from the funniest joke she had ever heard to a deep bow met by rapturous applause. Each vanished as quickly as they appeared. Raya exhaled the scent, her fading smile the singular proof that the perfume had once been inside her. No trace of the fragrance or the moments it conjured remained. The only thing Raya was sure of was that it left her lungs and heart empty.
“The Elsewhere Express gives us everything we want, but not the one thing we need to appreciate all that we have,” Dev said.
“Absence,” Raya said quietly.
Dev nodded. “We never stop. We never mourn. We never look back. Manon’s perfume is the gift of goodbye.”
“I only use the most fleeting thoughts,” Manon said. “As they pass, my clients get to remember, if only for a moment, what it feels like to have something slip from their hands.”
Raya looked at Dev. “But you told us that you were happy here, that you didn’t miss your old life.”
“Two things can be true at the same time. I meant what I said about enjoying what I do here. And I find the strength to do it every day for an eternity when I’m able to remember, even just for a moment, what loss is like.”
Manon returned from seeing Dev to the door. “I trust that I’ve answered all your questions about the perfumery?”
“I can see why some passengers would require your fragrances,” Raya said.
Q nodded. “And why you go to the lengths that you do to provide them.”
Manon smiled. “So, is there any fragrance here that interests you?”
“No.” Q shook his head. “But thank you for your time. Raya and I will be going now.”
“Perhaps I can offer you something else.” Manon walked over to a mirror on the wall. “I would hate to disappoint Alain.”
“Why would he be disappointed?” Raya said. “He asked us to deliver his gift to you and we did.”
“And what fine gifts you are.” Manon clasped her hands, smiling broadly. “You are both lovely. Exquisite, in fact. Alain knows my tastes. Both of you are carrying a scent that I have never smelled on this train.”
Raya frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You smell like rain. Except for the smell of my husband’s skin, there isn’t a scent that I miss more. I wish to add your scent to my collection.”
A squall whipped through Q’s eyes, churning gray clouds. “All of this was a trick?”
“No one has been tricked. I have not told you a single lie. Alain is one of the perfumery’s agents. His job is to whisper. And listen.”
“And fool people into coming here so that you can take their scent,” Raya said.
