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two shadows under the ledge of his cap.
    As soon as he left Redi quickly
moved to the exit in front of the car and punched the door panel. She walked
through the opening and took the passageway in two quick jumps. The next car
door wouldn’t open. She looked through its tiny window. A dark curtain blocked
the view.
    The conductor was suddenly behind
her. He wrapped his arm around her neck. She kicked and elbowed him but his
steel grip never loosened. He squeezed until she slipped into unconsciousness.
    Redi woke strapped to a metal
table under a circle of bright light. A rubber sheet covered her naked body. As
she struggled against the leather straps a familiar voice asked, “Are you so
reluctant to accept your reward?”
    “This isn’t what we agreed on.”
She twisted her head to locate the speaker in the dark shadows of the train
car.
    A man wearing a long blue
conductor’s coat walked into the circle of light surrounding the table. It was
the ghost she’d made a deal with. His eyes were completely white here.
    “Now, let’s see the whole
picture.” He pulled the rubber sheet off her naked body. Old scars lay in
patterns across her chest, stomach and legs. The burn scars on her back were a
thick pad against the metal table. “Your stepfather was a meticulous man.”
    “What are you doing?” she asked,
shuddering.
    “I’m honoring our agreement.” He
gently traced a scar on her stomach with his fingernail. His touch was light as
butterfly wings. “I’m pleased to be able to provide you what you require.”
    “I didn’t ask for this,” she
screamed, kicking in spite of the restraints. Bones in her ankles cracked.
    He opened his coat to reveal
shiny surgical tools interlaced in the brown skin of his chest.
    The leather straps bit into her
wrists and ankles as she thrashed back and forth. Animal sounds rose from her
chest, erupting into deep shrieks. She bit her tongue; blood mixed with spit as
she screamed and growled at him.
    He waited until her energy was
gone and she collapsed onto the metal table. Then he slowly pulled a slim,
hook-shaped scalpel from his chest.
    “Please, don’t...” she said in a
small, hoarse voice.
    He leaned close to her face. A
sweet scent made her stomach churn; it was the cologne her stepfather wore. It
took all her strength not to vomit. The ghost laid the cold metal tool on her
convulsing stomach. “Look.” He pointed across the room.
    A light turned on the opposite
wall of the train car. Invisible bonds against the padded wall held her stepfather.
He started whimpering.
    The ghost held her head up and
picked the scalpel up with his other hand. He used the blunt side to trace a
long ‘Z’ shaped scar that crossed her belly. Burning slid deep from inside her
and out through the scar. A childhood of fear and deep rage began to boil away.
She moaned. Her stepfather screamed as his stomach opened at the middle; thick
black liquid bubbled out. Her scar disappeared.
    The ghost rubbed hot fingers over
the re-smoothed skin. “This will take a while. Watch closely.”
    He worked slowly. Her stepfather
screamed and begged as his body gathered fresh wounds. Redi studied how each
instrument was used. When her scars were gone, he released her from the table
and they worked together on her stepfather to create new wounds.
    Hours seemed to pass and Redi
didn’t tire. What was left when he finally stopped screaming didn’t resemble a
human as much as a dissection diagram.
     
    Redi opened her eyes. She was
still sitting at the kitchen table opposite the ghost. The clock over the stove
showed about the same time.
    “What kind of trick was that?”
she asked, throwing the coffee cup at the ghost. The ceramic mug passed through
him and shattered against the wall.
    “No trick,” he said, opening his
hands as if to show he had nothing up his sleeves. “Look.” He pointed to her
chest.
    She lifted her t-shirt. The scars
were gone. She jumped up and ran to the bedroom and looked at