Looks Good on Paper by Kilby Blades

Author:Kilby Blades [Blades, Kilby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2022-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Nessun treno in corsa.

Zuri had hurried to check out of the pensione, hailed a cab, and directed it to go to the train station, a rather small affair at the edge of town. It wasn’t a long ride to the station, and she wasn’t running late, but missing her train would complicate everything.

Zuri hadn’t expected a huge crowd, but she also hadn’t expected the train station to appear quite so empty. When she’d arrived two days earlier, at least a dozen others had come off and on. When she didn’t see another human, she made her way to the ticket counter. It was there that she encountered the sign.

No trains are running was the phrase Google Translate spit out when she tapped the Italian phrase into her phone. Despite the notice, there was still a man behind the desk. In her best Italian accent, she repeated the phrase on the sign, hoping for more information.

“In sciopero. On strike,” the man helpfully translated into English. His precise age was hard to gauge, but he had the air of somebody who had done his job a long, long time.

Zuri made her own translation. It wasn’t the cleanest of sentences, but she knew the word for “train” was treno and the word for “tomorrow” was domani. She put a question mark behind the two words, hoping for some prediction for when to come back.

Impassively but not unhelpfully, he fixed her with a matter-of-fact gaze, then gave her his answer: “No.”

Rolling her bag behind her, Zuri walked the long way around until she reached the taxi line, where she found the same driver who had deposited her there just minutes before. When she repeated the phrase that she had read on the sign at the ticket counter, the taxi driver nodded. Letting her off at the corner of Chiasso Avvertenza, Zuri pulled her roller bag behind her once more, bumping it along the cobblestone streets until she stood in front of the pensione. She trekked up the same steps she had just trekked down and stood at the very same counter, faced with the very same impeccably dressed clerk.

“Ciao, Vanessa,” Zuri said pleasantly. “It turns out the train isn’t running. Could I reserve a room for one more night?”

“I have heard the news,” Vanessa declared. “You are the third one of our guests to return. Your room is being cleaned, but of course, you may have the same one if it is a room that you liked.”

Zuri was relieved. “Thank you. That would be amazing.”

Vanessa gave a little smile as she worked to check Zuri back in. “It has happened this way many times. When the train workers are on strike, the guests who are coming cannot arrive, and the guests who are going cannot leave. As a result, Ascobia always has the ideal number of guests.”

“Does this happen often?”

“In Italy, yes. The workers are very active. They go on strike at least four times a year and make sure it is very bad for tourism.

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