Mail Order Bride: Christy by Vivi Holt Page A

Topeka?” Christy knew, having already asked her mother half a dozen times, that Topeka would be the next stop where they would have a chance to get out of the train and take a good walk.
    “About four hours or so, I believe. We should be in Missouri by now,” answered her mother, who had taken a half-finished sweater out of a bag at her feet and was carefully knitting a row of green pearl stitches across the top of it, her needles flying.
    Just then, the engine slowed and Christy heard the screech of brakes as the locomotion pulled hard to a stop. Christy looked up with joy.
    “Oh, are we stopping here?” she asked, looking out the window at the dense woods beyond.
    Christy’s Ma glanced out the window, trying to see toward the front of the train. She looked stern.
    “Sit down Christy,” she whispered, her brow furrowed with deep lines. She placed her knitting carefully back into the bag, and leaned over to whisper something to Mr. Hancock who nodded and after a few seconds replied, “I’ll go and check it out.” He stood up and straightened his suit vest, a frown forming above his bushy, dark eyebrows.
    He looked over at Christy. “You stay here Christy, you hear me?”
    Christy nodded. It was unlike her Pa to speak to her with such a firm manner.
    “What’s happening, Ma?” Christy whispered.
    Worry and dread replaced her feeling of joy.
    “Why have we pulled to a stop here in the middle of nowhere? I can’t see a station platform anywhere. Is there something wrong?”
    Christy’s Ma reached over and placed a hand on her arm. “I'm not sure. Just stay quiet.” But after a few minutes had passed with no sign of Mr. Hancock's return, Mrs. Hancock had had enough of sitting still. She was a fierce, determined woman who was rarely content to sit back and wait for matters to play out.
    “I’m going to see what’s happened to your Pa. Promise me you won’t move from this spot my child.”
    Christy sat still, nodding, her hands pressed together in her lap. She waited patiently, craning her neck to scan up and down the side of the train as her Ma disappeared from sight.
    What is happening out there? The rest of the carriage was now very quiet and Christy sat as still and silent as everybody else, waiting. She peered again through the window, straining to discover anything about what was going on outside, but all she could see was a thicket of fir trees about twenty yards from the train tracks running parallel to the rails. Beyond the tree line, there was only darkness in the shadows of the closely bunched trees. Christy stood for a moment to gaze out the windows on the opposite side of the train, but again all she saw were the stout, unmoving fir trees lined up squarely one beside the other.
    Suddenly gunshots rang out. They echoed back from the surrounding hills, filling the carriage with their sound.
    People cried out to their loved ones as they ducked for cover.
    But Christy didn’t duck. Instead, she leapt out of her seat and ran to the front of the carriage, following the path Ma and Pa had taken, ignoring their directive that she sit still.
    The conductor was crouched down behind the back of a seat. He reached up his hand and grabbed Christy by the arm.
    “Where in tarnation do you think you’re going?” he asked, pulling her away from the door. “There’s train robbers out there! They’ll shoot you as soon as look at ya! They already shot two people who got in their way. Now we gotta sit back here, quiet like, and wait till they leave. I can’t let you go out there.” He tugged again at Christy's arm, and commanded that she sit down and keep quiet.
    “Let me go,” Christy said, desperately trying to wriggle her way out of the man’s clutches. “My Ma and Pa are out there!” she screamed.
    A grave look came over the man’s face. He loosened his grip on Christy.
    “Child you can’t go out there,” the man whispered.
    “I need to make sure they’re okay.” Christy wailed. Tears were