Read Restoring Harmony for Free Online

if we had room, we’d have a full-fledged dance right here.
    I played for almost an hour while the train moved along at a pace that my dog, Black Bart, could’ve outrun. After a while, my audience had that sort of glazed look that people get from too much fiddle and I knew they’d heard enough. Fiddle music is like that, so I packed up Jewels and sat down with Jane. Only diehards like me and my dad can listen to it endlessly.
    Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, the train stopped for almost three hours without explanation, and then it started up again. Jane had a deck of cards, and she taught me to play rummy. She tried to help me, but it was hopeless, and I lost every hand.
    Just before noon, the train pulled into Jane’s hometown of Kelso and the conductor came through the car and told us we’d be there for two hours, so we should get off and enjoy the sunshine.
    “If I lived a little closer, you could come to my house and we could find you some shoes,” Jane said, “but I think you should wait here in case the train leaves early.”
    “Oh, yeah. I’m staying right here,” I said, sitting down under a leafy dogwood tree.
    Jane gave me a hug good-bye, and I tried not to cry. My dad told me that one of his favorite things about travel had been meeting new people, but I hadn’t really understood until now.
    “If you need a place to stay, or a meal on your way back, stop by,” she said. “I’d be happy to see you anytime, dear. Good luck with your grandpa.” She handed me her address on a scrap of paper, and I hugged her again. I watched her hobble off until the crowd swallowed her up.
    Jane had given me a pair of purple knitted slippers from her small shoulder bag. I used a little of my water to clean my feet off and then I put them on. The soft wool cushioned my sore feet, but they were really warm on a summer day.
    Just over two hours later, the conductor called “All aboard,” and the rest of the southbound travelers got back on. Around four thirty, I saw a bridge ahead of us and I just about lost it. No one said we were going to have to cross a bridge! They’d been falling down all over the world ever since the Collapse, when tax money to repair them had dried up. Before I could find a conductor to ask if this really was a stable bridge, the train groaned across it and below us a wide green river snaked on its way.
    I clamped my eyes tight, and I swear I held my breath all the way across. I’d seen a bridge in Victoria, but I’d never, ever been on one. All I could think about was it cracking under our weight, sending us plunging down into icy water. When we crept over a second, equally shaky bridge, I thought for sure I was going to faint, but then we were on solid ground again and after a few minutes, the train slowed and stopped.
    “Portland, Oregon!” called the conductor. “This is Portland, Oregon!”

7
     
     
     
     
     
    EVERYONE STREAMED THROUGH THE MUSTY STATION, out big doors into the early evening heat, and walked away in one direction. I limped after them because Dad had said that I needed to take the electric train called MAX and most people would probably be going that way. I had to ride it to Gresham, Oregon, a city about twenty-five kilometers away.
    “It’s really just a suburb of Portland,” Dad had said. “You won’t be able to tell when you cross from one into the other. Should be pretty easy.”
    He’d run his hand through his hair then, tugging at it. When he was worried, his curly hair stood up like a clown’s wig from doing that, but I pretended not to notice he was nervous about me making this trip. Even though I’d been scared at the time, I’d liked being the chosen one for a change, instead of just James’s and Katie’s little sister. Now I wasn’t so sure.
    This part of the city looked a lot like the deserted bit of Seattle. Buildings had big condemned signs posted on them, and colorful graffiti decorated everything. I saw the rosy-cheeked woman with the