Trapped on the D.C. Train! Read Free

“That’ll be fourteen twenty-five,” she said.

    KC handed her the twenty.
    Mandy pulled out the change, which she gave to KC.
    KC wondered if she was supposed to tip, and how much. In her hand, she held three quarters and a five-dollar bill.
    Then she noticed a metal dish on the counter with some coins in it. She dropped the quarters into the plate.
    “Thanks, kids,” Mandy said.
    “You’re welcome,” KC said. She picked up the carrying tray.
    “Is it heavy?” Marshall asked. “Wait a sec.” He lifted out his soda and pizza.
    “It’s okay,” KC said. “Let’s just hope the lights don’t go out again!”

3
KC Sees a Mystery
    They walked past the men playing cards. KC stumbled a little as the train lurched beneath her, but she kept her balance.
    “Don’t drop it,” one of the men said.
    “I won’t,” KC answered. “Marsh, can you get the door?”
    They walked carefully through the next car. At the end, the blind man was passing his fingers over a page in his book. KC wondered what he was doing, then realized he must be reading Braille.
    Across from him, the woman still slept, wrapped in her blanket.
    Marshall opened the door, and they both stepped onto the swaying platformthat connected this car to their own.
    KC giggled. “My feet want to go one way, but my body has other ideas!” she said.
    Marshall opened the final door, and they were back in the vice president’s car.
    “Hurray, coffee!” Mary Kincaid said. “Any problems?”
    “Only the lights going off,” Marshall said.
    Robert took the cardboard tray from KC’s hands. Janet passed out the coffees and the vice president’s sandwich. KC took her juice and sat facing forward, across from Marshall.
    KC pulled off her cap. Then she remembered the five-dollar bill. She stood up and walked back to Mary Kincaid. “Here’s the change,” she said. “Stuff on the train is expensive! I tipped the lady seventy-five cents. Was that okay?”
    “Perfect,” the vice president said. “Thanks for doing that, KC.”
    KC walked back to her seat. “Where’s your pizza?” she asked Marshall.
    He grinned. “Gone to tummy land.”
    “Already?” KC asked.
    Marshall let out a small burp.
    KC sat back and sipped her orange juice. She took a book out of her backpack. It was a nonfiction book about Pennsylvania. “We’re going to Lancaster,” she said. “That’s where Ms. Kincaid’s farm is.”
    She leaned forward to show Marshall some pictures. “There are these people there called Amish,” she said. “They don’t have electricity or drive cars.”
    “How do they watch TV and use computers?” Marshall asked.
    “They don’t,” KC said. “And instead ofcars, they have horses and buggies. When it gets dark, they use candles or kerosene lamps. Look, here’s a picture of one of the buggies. Read what it says about no electricity.”
    “I can’t look,” Marshall said. “I’ll puke if I try to read.”
    “That’s because you’re riding backward,” KC said. “Sit next to me so you’re facing the same way the train is traveling. You won’t get sick. Here, you can be next to the window.”
    Marshall sat next to KC. Now they were both facing the door.
    “I wonder if blind people get sick when they read Braille on a train,” KC said.
    “What made you think of that?” Marshall asked. “That guy in the next car?”
    KC nodded. “Yes,” she said. “He’s facingthis car, the same direction you were sitting. Most people sit facing forward, the same direction the train is moving. But he’s sitting backward.”
    “But if he’s blind—” Marshall started to say.
    “And you know what else?” KC said. “The woman across the aisle from him is sitting the same way. They’re both facing this car.”
    “So maybe they know the vice president is in this car, and they’re just curious,” Marshall suggested.
    KC shook her head. “Nobody knows she’s here,” she said.
    “I think the conductors know,” said Marshall.
    “Well,