The Crystal Diary - Me (best book club books for discussion .TXT) 📗

out looking for me. I walked back inside the station to buy my ticket to Albany.

The computerized machine took a long time to hand me my ticket after I put the right amount of money in the slot. The wretched computer took its own sweet time in handing me the ticket it printed out.

“ Come on kid! We don’t have all day!” An impatient train rider called from the long line behind me. I sighed and snatched the ticket from the slot and cantered away from the machine. I sat down on one of the most uncomfortable benches in history and waited.

The schedule was wrong when it said that the wait would only be a half an hour. It was nearly dinnertime before my train was announced I was starving but I knew that the smartest thing to do would be to wait until I was on the train, and the train had left the station, to buy food. If I missed Minet at the station I knew that she would probably ask the employees if they had seen anyone that looked like me. So I shouldn’t make my presence known to anymore people on my trip than absolutely necessary.

I picked up my pack and walked quietly and quickly as possible so that I wouldn’t attract anyone’s attention and I would get out of New York City as soon as possible. The wave of humanity followed and shoved and pushed it’s way up against my elbows. I tried to stay calm but didn’t succeed until I was on the train.

The inside cars were like a blue carpeted universe and I with my pack squeezed in between the pairs of legs that barred my way like a stone wall. After saying ‘sorry’ and ‘excuse me’ over thirty times I reached the second car. At the very end there were two unoccupied seats. I sat down and got my ticket out of my pocket. After waiting for the conductor for six minutes I starred out the window and gasped at the sight before me.

Everyone in the train station waiting area was on their hands and knees with their hands above their heads and Minet stood with a knife in one hand and a pistol in the other hand questioning every one of them. She had trailed me here and would have jumped on the train, had not the conductor after shouting “All aboard!” shut the doors and locked the villain out (as I heard later on the train trip from a fellow passenger.) Minet tried to shoot the door open but then realized that her pistol wasn’t loaded. Then she jumped off the train door and pointed the knife at everyone around her, and then sure no one would dare follow her she took off running.

Finally another conductor came by and I gave him my ticket and he broke off the end and gave the rest of the ticket to me. Then he wrote a number on a slip of white paper and put it on the clip above my head. His clean-shaven face showed concern and he rubbed his chin.

“You’re kind of young to be traveling alone aren’t you?” I tried to think up a believable lie, but before I did an angry passenger called:

“ Hey conductor, what are you doing imitating a statue? I have a ticket too, you know!” He hurried off to calm the man and I knew that that was too close. I would have to play my cards more low key if I was to make this journey successful. I starred out the window and saw that the train was finally leaving the station. I was safe from Minet’s clutches for now, but I had to leave as little evidence behind everywhere I went, in case Minet caught up with me.

I starred out the window and a beautiful sunset in the distance calmed me. I would be fine and I would make it to Albany safely, and I would find dad.

After the other passengers had been satisfied and were going about their business I stood up and walked toward the snack car. I kept my face partially covered in order to keep people from seeing it. When I reached the food bar it was packed full and reminded me some crowds I had seen while in Disney World once. I strained to see the menu through heads, shoulders, and backs. As I looked at my surroundings people of every possible description and race were lined up chatting away on cell phones. I stood in line for at least an hour listening to people get their food and keep saying things like “Oh that was good!” and “Man that hit the spot.” And “I’m full!”

I felt like yelling: “COME ON MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY!” at the old lady in the walker in front of the line. Her caregiver was apparently thinking the same thing because she was patting and stroking her back and saying:

“Come on honey, a crowd is waiting-- make up your mind.” After a few minutes passed she finally did, ordered and left the line. But the guy ahead of me looked like Goliath’s cousin and blocked my view entirely. I prayed that whatever was going wrong up at snack bar wasn’t serious. At last Goliath ‘s cousin moved out of the way of the snack bar and it was my turn to order.

I stared at the large menu then became aware of the hungry people in back of me that would start a freight train massacre if I took my own sweet time in picking out my dinner.

The majority of the items displayed in the display case were pastries, muffins and other sweets. Hardly dinner food and mom would have insisted that I pick the fruit salad. I bought the fruit salad like mom would have said that I should but decided to splurge also and bought an old fashioned chocolate doughnut for afterwards. You would think that I would have ordered milk to go with it, but I bought root beer instead. Sugar Rush City you say? Well maybe your right.

The line members moved forward eagerly after I left it and decided to eat my dinner back in my seat where I could enjoy it in peace. All of the people in my train car were in the snack bar stuck in line for their evening meal. I worked my way back to my seat once again starting an “excuse me, sorry, and pardon me” chorus. Just when I shoved and tripped my way over to my chair and set my food on my seat a man grabbed my shirt and dragged me to the floor saving me from a tranquilizer bullet that was headed for my neck. I heard it crash out the opposite window and he took his hands off my arms letting me up.

I tried to see his face but it was covered with a thick black leather mask. I could just make out blond hair that stuck out from underneath his Indiana Jones like hat. He had a slim but muscular form that wore a black coat and jeans. I stood up shakily and I turned toward him to say thank you.

“ Thank you,” I began hoping that he would drop a few hints on whom he was. Minet’s new henchman? An innocent bystander? A FBI agent that “Thelma” sent after me? Maybe, should I dare hope…Dad? The man starred into my eyes as if hoping that I was someone he knew. His green eyes looked tense and bewildered.

“ Gwen?” Then strangely everything seemed to get foggy and the “Dad” I saw drifted away and I awoke. NO IT CAN’T BE A DREAM! I nearly cried and tried to see Dad again but couldn’t and after straining my eyes to see the non-existent I gave up and sighed. I looked down to see the bag of train food still in my hand.

Chapter 9
The Crystal’s Code

I must have gone to the snack bar, gotten my food went back to my seat and fell asleep. I explained to myself and broke my heart. Then I discovered that it was dark outside and even though the train lights were on I could see a full moon outside my window. I had been asleep for at least three hours. I looked at my watch. Ten ‘o’ clock, practically five hours, I looked around at the other passengers and found all of them asleep and most of them snoring. Hoping that I wouldn’t wake anyone up I unwrapped the plastic container that covered salad. My mouth watered after I had the piece of pineapple and remembered the Root Beer. I gulped a big swig down, and hurriedly finished the rest of the salad, and dug into the 100% deliciously unhealthy doughnut I held in my hands.

After finishing the sugar filled meal I tried to fall asleep but couldn’t. The late nap and sugar combination might have had something to do with it. I felt very restless and wanted to run a mile. Wasn’t there something else to do than just sit on a chair and wait for the conductor to announce that Albany was close by? Then I remembered what dad said in his letter: “I can’t tell you the code but it is in your crystal, you can see it in the moon light.” Then I knew that I had to get the code out of the crystal tonight. I took out mom’s diary and ripped out a small shred of paper, and stuck it my pocket. Then I stopped, what would I use to write with when the code came out of the crystal and I needed to copy it down?

A loud snore came from the seat behind me, I turned and saw a middle aged woman dead asleep. Next to her on the seat nearest to me lay a huge brief case. You probably wouldn’t have been able to find a more disorganized, or more completely stocked brief case if you went to a supplies store and bought one. Papers spilled out into the isle, along with a herd of pencils, and a flock of multicolored paperclips. I stepped out