Where The Tracks End

Chapter 2:

I kissed Mum and hurried over to the train. A man was looking at tickets for the train ride. He was dressed in a suit with a large hat, and he had a pair of glasses resting on his nose. He looked down through his glasses at Suzie as he read my ticket. "Kelly and Suzie Lavender?" He asked me and I nodded shyly as Suzie wagged her tail absent-mindedly. He stared at us for a bit before saying. "Enjoy the ride." I nodded again and we boarded. I chose a seat close to the window and tied Suzie's orange leash to the chair leg.

The chairs were big red ones that were quite comfy and plushy. They were red velvet and had a fold-down table on the back so the passengers could eat or do anything that required a table. This trip was to take four, long hours. I put my big bags up into the storage space above the seats, and pulled out my pillow. The chairs were nice and soft, but there's no such thing as too soft.

Suzie settled down on the floor and started chewing her leash. She was going to be so angry at me for this. I untied her leash as opened the door to her travel crate, which I had folded down to make it more transportable, and coaxed for her to come inside. Suzie shot me a look that said, "Do you really think I'm going in there?" I shook my head and bent down to push her. She sat there like a rock. "Get... in...there!" I said through gritted teeth as I pushed on Suzie's behind. She still sat there.

Finally, I managed to push her into the crate and shut the door before she could escape. She whinned grumpily and laid her head on her paws. Suzie had plenty of room to move around, and she had one of my fluffy towels to lay on, but she still wasn't impressed at all with her new mode of transport. I shook my head at her.

Then the train began to move, making soft but steely chuffa chuffa noises s it went. I waved through the window at Mother, who was standing on the deck of the train station.
She waved back. We waved until the train had passed a bunch of old trees, and our view from eachother was blocked. Suddenly, I started to worry.

I had been on a train before to see my relations, but it was always with Mum or Dad. As the conductor began speaking I relaxed a little with his calming voice. "Attention, please ladies and gentlemen, this is your conuctor speaking. I would like you to know that your saftey is in our professional care and for your saftey, please remain seated unless you must get up. And just a reminder that all animals must be in a carrier at all times. Thank you and enjoy the ride with us!"

I looked down smugly at Suzie. She was chewing the black bars of her crate. "Nope. You heard what the conuctor said," I knew that she couldn't understand it, even if she had stopped to listen to it. "No animals are allowed out of the crates." Suzie began chewing even more on her bars. I rolled my eyes and opened a little hatch on the top of her crate. This was so that I could put things in with out her getting out. I unzipped my back pack and dropped the bone in, after removing the glad wrap.

Suzie immediately stopped what she was doing and dove for the bone. As she cjewed it happily, I took out a book that I had brought with me, and began to read. The book was about a little greyhound that could run faster than the cars on the highway. Through the middle of it, I got hungry and opened up my lunch box. Suzie, who had been asleep, jumped up and yipped. She'd heard the pop as I opened the lid, and she could smell the jersey. "No, you have a bone." I told her as I bit into a thick peice of dark red jersey. Suzie whinned.

Then she gave me the eyes. Whenever she really wanted something, Suzie could display a very cute show with her eyes. They immediately swelled up to double their size so I could barely see the whites and her black doggie lips curled down into a tiny frown that brought out her eyes more. Her ears drooped and suddenly I couldn't look away. I stared into those big, pleading eyes a few moments more before losing the battle and throwing in a few jersey strips. She looked up for more, but after she got what she wanted, her face turned smug and it was impossible for her to give me the eyes again.

"Nope. You got what you wanted, now be happy about it." I said as I bit into another piece. But I couldn't keep the smile off my face. Suddenly, Suzie just couldn't bear my smile, and she had to smile herself, her lips curling up and her tongue hanging out gleefully. Then we began munching on our snack.

"Ow!" I said suddenly. Suzie looked up me with a confused expression. Then she whinned. I laughed. "It's OK, girl." I reassured her. "I just bit my cheek." I always bit my cheek when chewing something chewy.

Then I heard the conductor yell into the loudspeaker, "Brace yourselves, everyone! We're about to crash!" I looked around in confusment. What did he just say? Crash? That was way too quick! Everyone was moving down the back. Once again the loudspeaker called out. "PLease leave your belongings behind and more to the back of the train. Hurry!"