text: ‘You want your coat, Mama?’ ‘No need child. Train’ll be here in a minute.’ I nodded, walking back to the kids. The crowd was long gone but Mama stayed sitting on her suitcase by the tracks, waiting patiently to start our new lives. ‘Is Daddy coming back soon?’ Dorian asked. He was the next oldest after me, but still had the naivety. I envied that. ‘He’ll be along later. Pro’ly coming back on the train to save his legs’. Truth is Daddy probably wasn’t coming back. When the train never came on time, he got impatient. Daddy always lacked patience. He used to say Mama needed to do enough waiting for both of them. So rather than sit and wait with his family, he said he’d start walking along the tracks to meet the train. But that was hours ago and the light was starting to fade. I closed the buttons on my wool jacket and did the same for the young’uns. The desert’s plenty hot but once the sun goes down, you can catch yourself hypothermia quicker than shit through a goose. That’s what Daddy always said, before Mama would correct him. *Language, Hank. They’re children*. That we may be but it wouldn’t matter a damn once the Big Dark comes in. We’d only heard stories about it from folks going the other way. But for me, it wasn’t the words they’d say. Especially since most didn’t really see much through the fog. It was the look in their eyes when they described the screaming. That was enough for everyone to start making their peace and pack up. Maitland got their trains first of course, then the folks at the Pines. All the way down until it was just us. The more educated had noticed that once the richer folks got taken, the number of trains started to decrease, but at least they had the sense not to say it out loud. Griffin swore blind that he’d send one more train for us. No one could pay full price for a ticket but we gave what we could. Seems like it wasn’t enough. I noticed Old Earl McTaggert hauling some steel down from his cow shed to board up his windows. I knew it was about time we start doing the same, even though we didn’t have any steel for our windows. A few people with less than most were staying in the church. At least praying would give them something to do to stop their minds from drifting too much. ‘Can we sit with Mama?’ said Jessie, tugging on my sleeve. She was the youngest, not just in our family but of the families left. I didn’t want to think about what that would mean when the Dark settled in, so I just nodded. I let Dorian sit on the case so I could stay standing and feel useful. Jessie sat on Mama’s knee, curled up, ready to go to sleep. ‘Give it another half hour then we better go inside’. Mama gave us a little nod and started to sing a soft lullaby as the last of the light went down over the valley. So now we wait.